KAWARTHA LAKES-The elected bargaining team of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) begins mediation with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) today in a “last-ditch effort” to reach a negotiated collective agreement for Ontario’s 60,000 hospital Registered Nurses and health-care professionals.
“We expect no less than for the OHA to make an all-out effort to meet the demands of the very people who have gone above and beyond the call of their profession to provide the best-quality care they can for the people of Ontario,” says ONA Interim Provincial President Bernie Robinson, RN. “Our members have sacrificed so much to keep the system afloat, despite the policies and legislation passed by the Ford government that put their health at risk, suppressed their wages, breached their constitutional rights and overrode their collective agreements. It is well past time for the OHA, representing their employers, to recognize and respect our extraordinary RNs and health-care professionals.
The union started bargaining with the hospitals in late January and if no deal is reached through mediation it will go to an arbitrator in May.
The OHA says it is focusing on the negotiations.
“The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) are currently engaged in the collective bargaining process. The OHA is working very hard to reach a freely negotiated agreement with ONA, one that recognizes the enormous value of registered nurses and is aligned with a broader health human resource (HHR) strategy to ensure access to services and high-quality care for all Ontarians. We believe the right place for negotiation is at the table and will focus our efforts there.”
“ONA has been in negotiations with the OHA for a number of days,” says Robinson. “ONA continues to be optimistic that mediation will succeed. ONA has not reached a negotiated settlement with the OHA since 2011. Should it fail, the issue will go to an arbitrator in early May. “We are speaking out about the years of disrespect with which our members have been treated by this government and many of their employers. We are seeking better staffing, better wages and better care – knowing that better working conditions will enable our members to provide the quality of care our patients need and deserve.”
She adds that the outcome of this round of negotiations is pivotal to the future of our health-care system and beginning to solve the severe nursing shortage in this province. “It’s about priorities,” she says. “The outcome of mediation will show Ontarians – and ONA members – where those priorities really lay.”
According to the union it has been unable to reach a negotiated settlement with the hospital association since 2011.
ONA is the union representing more than 68,000 nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, industry and clinics.
