concerns with your government’s Bill 195. While your government moves to
reopen the province, it is working to strip nurses and other frontline
workers of their constitutionally enshrined rights. This is simply
unacceptable.
If passed, Bill 195 would allow employers to override collective
agreement provisions and the grievance arbitration procedure for
Ontario’s frontline workers. The very workers your government has
depended on to bring us to the possibility of reopening the economy are
the ones being thrown under the bus through this proposed legislation.
It is appalling that the rights of these workers are at stake –
especially at a time when they are being rightfully touted as heroes and
heroines.
It is difficult to comprehend the degree of stress nurses and other
health care workers are currently under. Over the course of the
pandemic, I have heard regularly from nurses about having to sleep in
their basement after working a double shift, being deprived of the
chance to spend time with loved ones. They are terrified of contracting
the virus and are deeply frustrated by the lack of PPE made available in
their workplaces.
