Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Webcasts
  • Data Privacy
  • Français
  • my CNW 
    • Login
    • Register
  • Client Login 
    • Online Member Centre
    • Next Gen Communications Cloud
    • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Sign Up
  • Send a Release
Return to PR Newswire homepage
  • News
  • Products
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
Advanced Search
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • All Public Company
      • News Releases Overview

      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
      • Multimedia Gallery Overview

      • Trending Topics

      • All Trending Topics
  • Business
      • Auto & Transportation

      • All Automotive & Transportation
      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • Auto & Transportation Overview

      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • All Business Technology
      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • Business Technology Overview

      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • All Entertain­ment & Media
      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • Entertain­ment & Media Overview

      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • All Financial Services & Investing
      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • Financial Services & Investing Overview

      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • All General Business
      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • General Business Overview

      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • All Consumer Technology
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • Consumer Technology Overview

      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • All Energy
      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • Energy & Natural Resources Overview

      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • All Environ­ment
      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • Environ­ment Overview

      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing Overview

      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • All Telecomm­unications
      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • Telecomm­unications Overview

      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • All Consumer Products & Retail
      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • Consumer Products & Retail Overview

      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • All Entertain­ment & Media
      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • Entertain­ment & Media Overview

      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • All Health
      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • Health Overview

      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • All Sports
      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • Sports Overview

      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • All Travel
      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • Travel Overview

      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • All Policy & Public Interest
      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Canadian Federal Government
      • Canadian Municipal Government
      • Canadian Provincial Government
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • Policy & Public Interest Overview

      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • All People & Culture
      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • People & Culture Overview

      • View All People & Culture

  • Advanced Search
  • Overview
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Monitoring
  • Distribution
  • Multimedia
  • Guaranteed Paid Placement
  • AI Tools
  • IR
  • Become a Client
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • General Enquiries
  • Media
  • Worldwide Offices
  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision Canada
  • Send a Release
  • FR
    • Phone

    • 877-269-7890 from 8 AM - 10 PM ET

    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Cision

      877-269-7890
      from 8 AM - 10 PM ET

  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Webcasts
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
    • Trending Topics
  • Business
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
    • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Webcasts
  • GDPR
  • Overview
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Monitoring
  • Distribution
  • Multimedia
  • Guaranteed Paid Placement
  • AI Tools
  • IR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Webcasts
  • GDPR
  • Become a Client
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • General Enquiries
  • Media
  • Worldwide Offices
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Webcasts
  • GDPR

1,200 hospital department closures, untold patient suffering: unions call on Doug Ford to enter hospital negotiations and address ongoing crisis

Canada's Healthcare Union (CNW Group/SEIU Healthcare)

News provided by

SEIU Healthcare

Dec 07, 2023, 16:20 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

OCHU/CUPE, SEIU Healthcare and Unifor say the government must prevent further closures by entering hospital negotiations to invest in frontline staff.

TORONTO, Dec. 7, 2023 /CNW/ - In response to yesterday's damning report by the Auditor General and a new report by the Ontario Health Coalition revealing nearly 1,200 Emergency Room and other hospital department shutdowns in 2023, three major hospital unions are demanding the Ford government come to the bargaining table with the funding required negotiate a deal to save public hospitals. Otherwise, they say workers will be forced to take unprecedented action to save public hospitals. After failing to respond to our tri-union request to streamline the bargaining process in an effort to efficiently standardize working conditions for healthcare workers across the province, these new reports make it clear that the government must now enter hospital negotiations and address the ongoing crisis.

OCHU/CUPE, SEIU Healthcare and Unifor, representing more than 70,000 hospital workers in Ontario, say that provincial underfunding has been used as an excuse by the Ontario Hospital Association during current negotiations, saying there is little room to address the decline in working conditions and patient care.

Staffing shortages are causing unprecedented closures of emergency rooms and urgent care centres, according to the Ontario Health Coalition report, while labour leaders are raising the alarm on long surgical waitlists and a record number of patients receiving "hallway health care".

The tri-union coalition is now demanding the Ontario government and OHA come together to find the much-needed funding to save our hospitals by ensuring safe staffing across all classifications, while implementing nurse-to-patient ratios to bring Ontario in line with other jurisdictions such as British Columbia and California.

Embedding staffing ratios in the contract would go a long way towards improving working conditions in a sector where exhaustion and burnout has led to a 300 per cent increase in job vacancies since 2015. Safe staffing levels will ensure that healthcare workers are supported to delivery the quality patient care they want to provide.

But reversing that trend will require significant investments from a government wedded to austerity and unwilling to alleviate the health human resources crisis, say the unions.

The latest budget estimates for 2023-24 show an effective funding cut for hospitals as they receive merely 0.5 per cent more in base funding from the province. The unions estimate that Ontario needs to invest, after increases to offset inflation, at least $1.25 billion annually for the next five years to stabilize patient care and address recruitment and retention challenges, constituting a 5 per cent annual growth rate.

However, if the government continues to be neglectful, the unions say there is a growing appetite for militancy among their members.

QUOTES

"Our members are distraught and angry. They find it inexcusable that the government is indifferent to the suffering of hospital patients. They don't understand how Doug Ford can cut funding while ERs are shutting down, while a record number of patients are receiving treatment in hallways, and while children are dying on surgical wait-lists. They have lost faith in this government's ability to manage public health care, and that's reflected in the attrition rate. It's high time for course correction – our unions have tabled reasonable proposals to improve staff-to-patient ratios and the quality of care, and the government must come to the bargaining table and deliver the resources to seriously address the crisis." – Michael Hurley, president of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), which is negotiating on behalf of 50,000 hospital workers.

"Yesterday, the Auditor General repeatedly and definitively declared that Ontario has no real health human resource strategy. Now, we are asking the Ford government to do the only thing they can do to truly prevent the collapse of our hospitals, and that is to do something they have never done before: come to the bargaining table as a party prepared to fund and fix the abhorrent working conditions and pay that is driving frontline workers out of the public system and driving up wait-times for patients. Taxpayers fund our public education system and therefore the provincial government sits at the bargaining table with teachers. Similarly, we are calling on the provincial government to participate in saving our public hospitals by joining healthcare workers at the bargaining table to address the lack of funding the Ontario Hospital Association blames for worsening hallway healthcare and privatization threats."  - Sharleen Stewart, President, SEIU Healthcare

"We are deeply concerned about the escalating crisis in our hospitals. The staggering number of department closures is not just a statistic – it's a clear sign of a system in distress, affecting real lives every day. Our members are at the frontline, witnessing the deteriorating conditions firsthand. Health care workers are overworked, under-resourced, and yet they continue to deliver care with unwavering dedication. It's time for the Ford government to recognize the urgency of the situation. We need immediate and substantial investment in our healthcare system to ensure safe staffing levels and quality patient care. Unifor remains united with our fellow unions in calling for meaningful negotiations and we are prepared to take decisive action to protect the health and rights of Ontarians," Kelly-Anne Orr, Assistant to the National Officers

SOURCE SEIU Healthcare

For media inquiries, contact: Corey Johnson, SEIU Healthcare, [email protected], 416-529-8909; Zaid Noorsumar, CUPE Communications, [email protected], 647-995-9859; Hamid Osman, Unifor Communications, [email protected], 647-448-2823

Modal title

Organization Profile

SEIU Healthcare

    Also from this source

  • SEIU HEALTHCARE RECIPIENT OF $2 MILLION FROM THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO TO SUPPORT ITS WORKERSFIRST PLATFORM

  • STANDING UP FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION; SEIU HEALTHCARE PROUDLY SPONSORS PRIDE TORONTO FESTIVAL 2025

  • SOUTHBRIDGE'S ORCHARD VILLA, FOR-PROFIT LONG-TERM CARE HOME SUBJECT OF ARMED FORCES REPORT, ENDURES DAYS OF HEATING OUTAGE AS TEMPERATURES DROP TO -18 OVER THE WEEKEND

Contact Cision

  • 866-245-2317
    from 8 AM - 10 PM ET
  • Become a Client
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • General Enquiries
  • Media

Products

  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Media Monitoring
  • Content Distribution
  • Multimedia Distribution
  • Measurement & Analytics
  • Investor Relations

About

  • About Cision Canada
  • About Cision
  • Media Partners
  • Careers
  • Accessibility Statement
  • APAC
  • APAC - Simplified Chinese
  • APAC - Traditional Chinese
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Czech
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
  • Middle East - Arabic
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Russia
  • Slovakia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • United States
  • Vietnam

My Services

  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Centre
  • Next Gen Communications Cloud
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • my CNW

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Centre
  • Next Gen Communications Cloud
  • Cision Communications Cloud
  • my CNW
877-269-7890
from 8 AM - 10 PM ET
  • Terms of Use
  • Information Security Policy
  • Site Map
  • Cookie Settings
  • Accessibility Statement
Copyright © 2025 CNW Group Ltd. All Rights Reserved. A Cision company.