Ontario Registered Nurses Receive Hospital-Sector Arbitration Award

 ONA Press Release - May 2, 2014

TORONTO – Approximately 58,000 registered nurses working in Ontario hospitals – members of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), have received an arbitration decision, resolving a dispute with Ontario hospitals over the nurses’ collective agreement.

The two-year award provides a 1.4-per-cent wage increase in each year – barely, if at all – keeping up with the rate of inflation.

“Our registered nurses have already sacrificed wages with a two-year wage freeze in the last contract,” said ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. “Registered nurses had every expectation of moving back to more appropriate compensation that reflects the value of RNs to health care and would have been more in line with increases given to other professional essential service workers and our Canadian nursing counterparts.”

Haslam-Stroud says that ONA is extremely disappointed that the award fails to provide any benefit or premium improvements, which have always been important feature of any round of negotiations. She notes that this contract is balancing the provincial budget on the backs of registered nurses.

The arbitration decision did hold one piece of good news for newly graduated registered nurses. “We are pleased to see that the arbitrator rejected all of the Ontario Hospital Association’s proposals, including a three-per-cent cut to the start rate for new RN graduates,” she said. “This would have resulted in our new RNs considering their options to practice in other jurisdictions, rather than be the lowest-paid RNs in all of English-speaking Canada.”

Haslam-Stroud notes the growing body of research proving the value that RN care brings and says that, “clearly, we have yet to reach the point of reflecting the value of RN care, both in cost savings and the decrease in patient death rates, in Ontario’s nurses’ contracts,” she said. “Our patients understand the value of our nurses; their employer does not.” 

ONA is the union representing 60,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, as well as more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

Click the link to access the award summary and other documents:

ONA Hospital Section Arbitration Award

Hospital ONA Members:  Meetings while be held with your Bargaining Unit Presidents to answer any questions - please watch for notices at your facilities.

International Workers’ Day - May 1

Come join the local labour unions as we as recognize the sacrifices made in Windsor that won us the labour rights we have today!

Organizers are planning a Labour Village and parage to celebrate this year’s May 1^st. The march starts outside the Art Gallery of Windsor at 4:30pm and will conclude at the Labour Village built at 547 Victoria Ave., which will be open from 6-8pm. Join your colleagues from Local 8 for the parade.

Local 8 will be manning a table and promoting the morenurses.ca campaign. We are looking for volunteers to assist with this event.  Please contact Jo-Dee Brown through the Local 8 website (local8.ona.org) to volunteer or to find out more information!

Local 8 Nurses Week Awards

Local 8 is now accepting nominations for Local 8 Nurse of the Year 2014 and applications for the Lori Dupont Education Bursary. These forms may be found on our website: Local8.ona.org under the Nurses Week Awards calendar event. The deadline to submit these forms are May 1, 2014 so don't delay.

Winners will be announced at the Local 8 Nurses Week Dinner May 12th. Tickets for the dinner can be purchased from your Bargaining Unit Presidents for only $10.00.

ONA President's Message "I Will Never Give Up - But I Need Your Help!"

As your elected President, there is nothing I would have liked more than to be able to announce details of a negotiated hospital-sector agreement this month. Unfortunately, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) had other ideas.

Despite the arduous efforts of our Hospital Central Negotiating Team on behalf of our 58,000-plus members, the OHA was unwilling to negotiate an agreement that reflected our value to the health-care system.

As I'm sure you have heard, the Ontario Hospital Association tabled outrageous and regressive concession proposals, including a three-per-cent wage cut. The effects of these rollbacks would include more than a $26,000 reduction in wages over eight years for a new nursing graduate, and a rollback in wages from three to seven per cent for any experienced nurse who changes employers.
Unfortunately, our patients would bear the brunt of this: fewer nurses working in Ontario will deplete the high-quality care our patients deserve.

Let me be clear about one thing: ONA will never, never, never give up! Our strong More Nurses Campaign is resonating with the public and our supporters. Ontarians are getting the message: Ontario needs more registered nurses - not cuts.

On March 19, hundreds of members, ONA staff and supporters attended a rally at Queen's Park to spotlight the impact of registered nursing cuts on patient care. Many media outlets -- including television, radio and print as well as online through social media -- captured our strong, clear message: Ontario needs more nurses.

Here's how you can help: As patient advocates, we must all speak out about these cuts to our family, friends, neighbours and to our elected representatives. The more conversations we have about this issue, the more aware Ontarians will be about the devastating impact nursing cuts have in health care.
Please visit either www.morenurses.ca or www.ona.org/morenurses to find resources, information and tools to help you have these conversations.

Can I count on you?

In Solidarity,
Linda

Local 8 Celebrates Nurses Week

May 12 - 18 is Nurses Week! 

Nurses Week is a time to recognize the year-round dedication and achievements of Registered Nurses (RNs), Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and to increase awareness of their contributions to the well-being of Canadians.

Local 8 kicks of this week long celebration with a dinner for current members, retired members and future members (nursing students).  Our special guest is Linda Haslam-Stroud, Provincial President.

Tickets can be purchased from Local 8 Bargaining Unit Presidents until May 6th.

For more details regarding this event - please see our website: http://local8.ona.org

Ontario Nurses' Association says no to concessions that would harm patients

March 14, 2014
The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is warning that contract demands tabled by the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) would lead to a nursing crisis reminiscent of the Harris government years. Contract talks broke down when the OHA team walked away from the table, forcing arbitration this weekend. The OHA is proposing unprecedented rollbacks for RNs. The current collective agreement between ONA's 58,000-plus hospital-sector registered nurses (RNs) and their employers expires on March 31.
"The OHA's proposals of cuts to wages and benefits will have a profound effect on the supply of nurses in Ontario that directly impacts the quality of care that Ontarians can expect to receive," said ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. "The proposed new system of RN wage cuts would send a strong message that registered nurses are not valued and prompt new RN graduates to look south of the border or to other provinces to practice."
Haslam-Stroud is appalled at what has been tabled at arbitration by the employer. She says that, "We will not bargain away our future or our ability to provide quality patient care." ONA is committed to negotiating an agreement that reflects the value RNs provide to the patients of Ontario, and that does not include cutbacks.
"This province, which has the second-worst RN-to-population ratio in the country, needs to attract new nurses and keep the experienced RNs we have now on the job as long as possible. Yet the OHA's arbitration proposals will do exactly the reverse," said Haslam-Stroud. "We know that there is a tsunami of experienced RNs poised to retire, and we can't replace them fast enough. Why - when we desperately need new graduates coming into the system and our Northern and rural communities are begging for more RNs - would we make the profession less attractive and disrespect the years of education and training our members have?"
She also notes that "research - including a very recent study published in The Lancet -- has found that cutting RN care increases the rate of complications and death suffered by patients. Alternatively, increasing RN staffing improves patient health outcomes and prevents unnecessary hospital readmissions."
Unsafe RN staffing levels have become more common as hospitals have cut RN positions to balance budgets; increasingly, RNs are finding they are unable to provide care consistent with the standards set by their regulator. Ontario has cut more than 1,000 RN positions in the past two years.
A long list of nursing expert panel investigations into RN staffing levels - at Rouge Valley Health System, Kingston General Hospital, Sault Area Hospital, Humber River Regional Hospital, Peterborough Regional Hospital and Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital - have found that RNs are unable to provide proper patient care under current conditions and that the hospital work environments do not support quality nursing practice.
"I'm dumbfounded that at a time when experts are using phrases such as 'significant suffering' to describe the quality and safety of patient care that is occurring because of RN understaffing, the OHA want to worsen it," said Haslam-Stroud. "The Ontario government and the OHA are telling RNs that they are worth less than they were a year ago. They should instead focus on ensuring that our patients get the safe, quality care they deserve, not on gutting RN contracts."

Ontario RNs have been falling further behind in remuneration compared to the rest of Canada. ONA members' wages were frozen for two years in their last contract and now a three per-cent rollback of wages has now been proposed. The lack of a competitive wage would also likely drive experienced RNs to retire, compounding the nursing shortage. "Asking nurses to be paid less than ever is a slap in the face to the entire profession and to Ontarians," she says.
ONA is the union representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered practical nurses and allied health professionals, as well as nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.http://www.ona.org/news_details/ONA_no_concessions_20140314.html

ONA unveils subway ads in Queen's Park Station in support of our More Nurses Campaign

Check out the latest ad campaign from ONA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjsR1z2qLPQ&list=UU97L0iKhJl8oQwBKm_M0Epw