The President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions claims the provincial government is trampling on workers rights.
Michael Hurley says Bill-195 gives the government to much control over front line workers.
Hurley says the province isn’t working with nurses and physicians on COVID-19 workplace concerns.
He notes “Fifty per cent of the front-line caregivers that we polled in our membership reported that they were not actually physically living with their families. They were separating themselves in basements, sheds and trailers because they didn’t want to pass the virus along to them.”
Hurley says heath care workers have had to make a lot of sacrifices and it’s time the Ford government treated them better.
“There is no dialogue with that respect at all. That’s another feature of the relationship here which is problematic.”
Fred Hahn is the President of Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario, and accuses the province of not protecting the ability to keep shifts, or not worry about job loss, something workers accepted during the State of Emergency.
“To have their rights simply withheld from them in an indefinite way, is unacceptable and it can’t be allowed to stand without folks coming together to demand that front-line heroes be respected.”
Protests against Bill-195 are planned for Kenora and Thunder Bay in the next couple of weeks.
