Ontario health care workers, angered that their workplace rights are being trampled on by the same government that called them heroes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, will escalate political protests throughout the summer and fall.
Beginning August 17, 22 regional rallies are planned in communities across the province. The protests are in response to the passing of Bill 195, the Reopening Ontario Act (A Flexible Response to COVID-19), which suspends many fundamental workplace rights, although the Bill declares the pandemic emergency over.
“The PC governments recognized hospital workers as heroines one minute, then stripped away their basic rights at work the next,” says Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU/CUPE). “The Ford government calls these women heroines, but is actually hurting them very badly by taking away their basic work place rights.”
Under the Act, which was rushed through legislature, health care employees can have their shifts changed from days to nights, be reassigned to another job, re-located to another community, laid off without notice, and even have their parental leaves cancelled.
