Niagara Falls Health care workers could be facing the fight of their lives if Premier Dalton McGuinty follows a recent consultants report to its logical conclusion contracting-out hospital jobs, Sid Ryan, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, will tell delegates at a conference opening here tonight.
The Hay Group report, which was leaked to media last week, and the recent report from the Fraser Institute on hospital wages are both designed to encourage privatization in health care, Ryan says. We cant let the province bring the competitive bidding that has been such a disaster in home care into our hospitals, too. And we wont let them go down the road paved by Gordon Campbell in British Columbia, who opened up collective agreements and stripped them of contracting out protections and successor rights.
About 200 delegates from CUPE locals in hospitals, ambulance services, public health, long-term care and home care will be meeting until Wednesday at the Sheraton on the Falls. CUPE represents more than 50,000 health care workers across the province.
Besides discussing contracting-out hospital jobs and the current crisis in home care, delegates will also hear tomorrow from Dr. Pat Armstrong and Dr. Tamara Daly, authors of There are not enough hands: Conditions in Ontarios long-term care facilities, which was released by CUPE last week.
- Who:
CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan -
What:
Opening address to the Health Care Workers
Coordinating Committee Conference -
When:
7:00 p.m., Monday, September 27, 2004 -
Where:
Sheraton on the Falls, 5875 Falls Avenue, Niagara Falls
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario, 416-209-0066 (cell)
Pat Daley, CUPE Communications, 416-616-6142 (cell)