More than 100 health care workers rallied outside London, Ont.’s Meadow Park London Long Term Care on Wed., April 6, 2022, waving signs and cheering as supporters honked their horns as they drove by.
Organized by Unifor Local 302, this is the second rally involving workers at “the group of 11” long-term care homes – including Meadow Park – who turned to protest after their employers stalled bargaining since December 2021. The first protest took place at Trillium Village in Sarnia, Ont. on Dec. 15.
LONDON – Health care workers at Meadow Park long-term care facility will hold a rally demanding the employer to get back to the bargaining table and start to respect, protect and pay health care workers.
Who: Lisa Tucker, Local 302 President
Andy Savela, Unifor Health Care Director
When: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, 2022
More than 120 Ontario long-term care workers showed solidarity in Toronto – March 24 to 25, 2022 – during Unifor’s Long Term Care Bargaining conference.
NAPANEE – Unifor recently wrote to Minister Fullerton to alert the province of a Napanee employer’s failure to negotiate with striking women’s shelter workers.
“This employer, the Lennox and Addington Interval House, seems to be delaying negotiations on purpose, instead of responding to earnest and reasonable proposals from these dedicated workers,” said Katha Fortier, Unifor Assistant to the National President.
The Honourable Minister Merrilee Fullerton, MPP, MD
Minister of Children, Community and Social Services @email
Dear Minister,
Re: Lennox Addington Interval House
I write to you on behalf of the twenty (20) women who work at the Lennox Addington Interval House in Napanee, Ontario, who have been on strike since October 29, 2021.
Unions representing 220,000 workers demand the repeal of Bill 124 and a real plan to fix the worsening health human resource crisis in Ontario
TORONTO, ON – Today, SEIU Healthcare, OCHU/CUPE, Unifor, and Ontario Nurses’ Association, unions representing 220,000 healthcare workers across Ontario, including 85,000 nurses, issued an open letter to Premier Ford to fix the worsening health human resource crisis in Ontario and move past the band aid pay-as-you-vote gimmicks.
On behalf of 220,000 union members in the health care system, and more than 18,000 nursing students, we are once again cautioning you against further demoralizing the workforce by providing one-time payments to some, but not all, health care workers. While retaining nurses is vitally important, there are shortages in many health care occupations and professions, and it is appropriate to extend any retention bonus to all health care workers.
Health care workers represented by Unifor have launched a video appeal to Premier Doug Ford that shares the struggles they have faced during the pandemic, while being subjected to Ontario’s Bill 124.
“Despite all of the sacrifices that all workers in hospitals, non-profit long-term care homes, and ORNGE Air Ambulance paramedics have made throughout the pandemic, the Ontario government has refused to repeal Bill 124,” said Katha Fortier, Unifor’s lead health care negotiator. “This legislation is an insult to health care workers and has created a greater disparity in the system.”
