MEDIA ADVISORY
SUDBURY Sudbury Paramedics are upset about the Regions hiring practices, after 11 full-time employees from the Sudbury and District Ambulance Service, with between 10 and 35 years of dedicated service, were not given positions with the newly created Region of Sudbury Emergency Medical Services, despite assurances to the contrary. Twelve other paramedics were offered only temporary positions and part-time workers, many having worked for years in temporary full-time positions, were overlooked for full-time positions. The union leadership will make a presentation to the Citys Corporate Services Committee, Wednesday, October 25th, and members of Local 2412 will hold an information picket in front of Tom Davies Square beginning at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow.
When ambulance services were downloaded to the municipality by the provincial government, we fought hard to keep the services public, says Jacques Collin, president of Local 2412 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 91 paramedics. We believe a publicly run system is in the best interest of the public and we won our fight. But with the creation of the new Region of Sudbury EMS, all of our members had to reapply for their jobs, handing in our resumes, going through interviews and hoping for the best.
When downloading/transition was announced, both George Lund and Frank Mazzuca publicly stated there would be no job losses now at least eleven experienced, dedicated and respected paramedics have been discarded, while others from outside the region, and people who already had full-time employment, have been handed new positions, says Collin.
Local 2412 had been given assurances by the new Region of Sudbury EMS that Sudbury Paramedics would be given priority in hiring.
CUPE will not stand by while this unfair process has shattered the lives of dedicated, long-standing employees, says Anna Sweet, CUPE National Representative in the Sudbury Area. We will fight this tooth and nail, and we will ask the public for their support because its just not right.
Other ambulance services that have been downloaded in Ontario, including Niagara, York, Hamilton and Durham, have offered employment to every employee from the previous service. My question to Tim Beadman, the new ambulance administrator, is: Whats wrong with Sudbury paramedics? This injustice is bad for the morale of all our paramedics, says Collin.
(Attention Journalists/News/Photo Editors: An information picket will be held outside Tom Davies Square in Sudbury at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 25th)
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For further information, please contact:
Jacques Collin, President, Local 2412
(705) 674-7557, (705) 692-5097
Anna Sweet, CUPE National Rep.
(705) 674-7557
Robert Lamoureux, CUPE Communications
(416) 292-3999