Media advisory: OPSEU/SEFPO Canadian Blood Services Workers to Rally Alongside Labour and Community Allies Outside For-Profit Plasma Donation Centre in Whitby
HAMILTON, ON, May 6, 2025 /CNW/ - OPSEU/SEFPO members working at Canadian Blood Services (CBS) will be holding a rally today – Tuesday, May 6th – outside Grifols for-profit plasma donation centre in Hamilton from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. The CBS workers will be joined by fellow OPSEU/SEFPO members, labour and community allies.
The rally will protest the opening of the centre, which will be allowed to collect blood for payment, and the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) unethical move to quietly privatize Ontario's blood system.
This is one of a number of paid plasma centres being opened in Ontario as a result of a 15-year agreement between private pharmaceutical company Grifols and the Canadian Blood Services (CBS). Paid plasma collection is banned in Ontario; however, the legislation contains an exemption for CBS or its agents – a legal loophole which CBS is taking advantage of to circumvent the ban.
Details of the rally are as follows:
When: Tuesday, May 6, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST
Where: 2255 Barton St. East, Hamilton – Grifols Donation Centre
Who: Speakers will include JP Hornick, OPSEU/SEFPO President; Sara Labelle, OPSEU/SEFPO Region 3 Regional Vice President; Geoff Cain, Chair of OPSEU/SEFPO Sector 19 Blood Services and Diagnostics; Peter Figliola, OPSEU/SEFPO Region 2 Executive Board Member; France Gelinas, ONDP Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Health; and Gloria Warren, Ontario Nurses Association Local 50.
SOURCE Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)
Media Contact: Samantha Webber-Gallagher, OPSEU/SEFPO Communications, [email protected], 519-372-5776
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