Media Advisory - Grand River Hospital Nurses to Protest While Board of Directors Meets

KITCHENER, ON, June 25, 2019 /CNW/ - Registered nurses and health-care workers will hold a demonstration today to put pressure on the Grand River Hospital (GRH) board of directors to do the right thing: rescind the cuts of front-line registered nurses (RNs) and stop reneging on pension fairness for all employees.

This will be the second time in as many months that members of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) protest cuts that will negatively affect patient care. At their info picket in May, nurses informed the community about cuts that have resulted in the loss of more than 53,000 hours of RN care per year. Since then, another 15 full-time RN positions have been cut, leading to the loss of an additional 29,000 hours of RN care annually.

What:	Rally to Rescind the Cuts & Stop Reneging on Pension Fairness
Who:	Grand River Hospital nurses and health-care workers
When:	Tuesday, June 25, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Where:	835 King Street West, Kitchener, ON

Grand River Hospital has recently broken a promise by reneging on transferring all hospital employees into the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) - a multi-employer plan that's fully-funded, internationally respected, and used by all but one other hospital in the province. It is galling to the nurses that entire senior leadership at Grand River are in HOOPP.

About 60 full-time equivalent (FTE) front-line RN and health-care workers' positions would need to be cut if the transfer to HOOPP proceeded. Over 40 FTE of ONA members have already been eliminated.

Hospital management claimed that about 60 full-time equivalent (FTE) front-line RN and health-care worker positions would need to be cut if the transfer to HOOPP proceeded. Yet, despite not proceeding with the HOOPP transfer, over 40 FTE of ONA members' positions have already been eliminated. This does not include the elimination of other GRH health-care workers' positions, which likely brings the total of FTE cuts to at least 60, if not more.

The old pension Plan for Employees of Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital is a single-employer pension plan, meaning Grand River Hospital is solely responsible for any pension shortfalls. In preparation for the long-promised transfer to HOOPP, the old plan cashed out all of its investments and terminated its relationship with the plan administrator and investment manager. As a result, the old plan, to which more than half of the hospital's employees belong, currently has no investment income with all assets in cash. The old plan would also have incurred costs to cash out all investments. This puts the old plan, its working and retired members, and ultimately Grand River Hospital at risk. 

ONA is the union representing more than 65,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

Visit us at: www.ona.org; Facebook.com/OntarioNurses; www.Twitter.com/OntarioNurses

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association

Melanie Levenson, [email protected], [phone], ext. 2369; Ken Marciniec, [email protected] [phone], ext. 2306; cell: [phone]

Related Links

www.ona.org