Despite rain and single-digit temperatures, dozens of Ontario nurses gathered in Nathan Phillips Square Sunday afternoon, demanding an immediate end to a provincial bill that has hampered their salaries for the past three years. .
Should he remain, leaders of nursing organizations say they promise to fight to oust Prime Minister Doug Ford in the next election.
Enacted in 2019, Bill 124, called the Law for the Protection of a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations, capped salary increases for one million provincial public sector workers, including nurses and teachers, to just one percent per year. .
This is well below the province’s annual inflation rate, which hit a two-decade high in September at 4.4 percent and shows no signs of slowing down.
In effect, the bill ensures that Ontario nurses receive decreasing salaries each year taking inflation into account, which many nursing organizations say is causing a “mass exodus” of local nurses to other provinces or the United States.
“We as nurses risk our lives every day at work,” said Sarah Fung, RN and co-host of the Brave nurse podcast, to the crowd at Nathan Phillips. “We deal with verbal abuse, we deal with physical abuse, our lives are worth more than one percent.”
Registered nurse Birgit Umaigba said the bill has caused chronic staff shortages in Ontario hospitals. With the added stressors of the pandemic, “you can only imagine how bad it has gotten,” he said.
“My colleagues are leaving,” he said. “Many of the more experienced nurses have left. We have new graduates working without support. “
Many nurses, both speakers and members of the crowd, said they will unite to vote Ford out of office in next year’s provincial elections.
“If Bill 124 doesn’t go away in 30 days, Premier, and this is not a threat, I never threaten anyone, I just act on issues, this will become a voting issue for all of our nurses,” the Association said. of Ontario Registered Nurses. Executive Director Doris Grinspun amid applause and pots and pans banging.
“That bill is a slap in the face. It has to go away and it should go away in 30 days. “
Registered Nurse Nancy Halupa agreed: “If this bill is not repealed by then, everyone at the next protest will be holding signs saying, ‘Vote Ford Out 2022.’
Sunday’s rally was far from the first. The last three years have seen several as well as legal efforts by unions, including a challenge to Bill 124.
Cathryn Hoy of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) said protests like these have become vital to fighting for the rights of the nursing profession.
Under Ford, third-party organizations, such as ONA, saw spending cuts, making it difficult to voice their disagreement against government policies, he said.
“Bill 254 silenced our 68,000 members from speaking out against what (Ford) has done in healthcare,” he said. “The unions went to court for that and we won, but he amended the bill and limited our spending, so he doesn’t have a voice that we should have come election time. This is why these events are so important. “
Today he encouraged everyone in the crowd to gather everyone they knew of voting age and prepare for the upcoming elections. “We need a new government,” he said.
“As I tell Ford, it may not have started it, but it ended with the disappearance of medical care,” Hoy said. “Ontario has the worst patient-nurse ratio in all of Canada. That’s gross. We must all fight for the respect we deserve as healthcare providers. “
Another criticism of bill 124 is that it widens the gender pay gap in the province. While female-dominated public sector jobs, such as nursing and teaching, are affected, male-dominated jobs, such as police and firefighters, are exempt as they are funded by the municipality.
Donald Sanderson, vice president of the ONA and a registered nurse, said the fact that the bill “predominantly targets female-dominated professions” is “another blow to the face.”
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said. “The healthcare system in Ontario has been in its last stages for some time.
“If Ford has done something, it was to take people to the streets, and if there are nurses on the streets, you know you have a big problem.”
Sanderson closed his speech by challenging the crowd to speak to friends and neighbors about voting against Ford. “The battle has started right now,” he said.
Reference-www.thestar.com