The union representing nearly 1,000 workers at Queensway Carleton is slamming the provincial government for the elimination of 101 jobs at the hospital.
The hospital has notified CUPE 2875 about the layoffs, citing insufficient funding amidst rising costs of operations including drugs, salaries, and supplies. The impacted jobs include 87 nurses, seven housekeepers, and four emergency department personal care aides.
“While the Premier is focused on private jets and taking months-long vacations, there are health care workers at the hospital concerned about losing their jobs and keeping a roof over their heads,” said Hilder Langwa, patient care aide and president of CUPE 2875.
“There are health care workers wondering how they are going to keep up with the workloads and take care of the growing number of patients walking through those hospital doors. These decisions are being made with complete disregard for the well-being of workers and patients.”
Calling for safe staffing levels for the benefit of care providers and patients, the union leader said further cuts will undermine access to care at a hospital where long wait-times are already a major concern.
Latest provincial data from May 2026 shows that only 17% of emergency department patients at Queensway Carleton were admitted within the eight-hour target time. Average wait-time in May was 16.3 hours.
“ER wait-times are the canary in the coal mine,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). “A hospital struggling to maintain the basic level of care for patients at their most vulnerable requires more resources, and we blame the provincial government for stubbornly clinging to a failed policy of underfunding our public hospitals. The government must step up for the residents of this community.”
CUPE is joining forces with other unions at the Queensway Carleton including OPSEU and ONA to organize a campaign. The trio will hold a rally outside the hospital scheduled for August 19 from 12pm – 2pm.
CUPE 2875 represents nearly 1,000 workers at the hospital. The union is part of OCHU-CUPE, which represents 46,000 health care workers across the province.
