Mediation Fails for 10 Ontario Community Care Access Centres: Employer walks away from the table, Care Coordinators Taking Strike Votes

TORONTO, Jan. 20, 2015 /CNW/ - The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) and the 10 Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) where ONA holds bargaining rights, have reached a stalemate after three days of mediation with a provincially appointed conciliator. 

The employer walked away from the table yesterday, leaving the Care Coordinators with no other option but to take strike action to secure a collective agreement that reflects the value our CCAC members provide to the healthcare system. Strike votes at all 10 Bargaining Units will be held in the upcoming weeks.  

At mediation yesterday, ONA and the employer again exchanged proposals. However, once again the employer simply reiterated the same position they have been holding to for months. It appeared clear to ONA that the employer never intended to bargain on salaries. The main focus of this dispute is wages. ONA is looking for normative wage increases and some minor increases in benefits and/or premiums. ONA is seeking the same salary increases that it has negotiated in all of its other major sectors, including hospitals, where many of our CCAC members work.

"We are very concerned that the employer continue to single out and relegate this very important group of Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Social Workers, Registered Practical Nurses and other Allied Health employees to second-class citizen status," said ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. "Adding insult to injury, these are the very same employers, including their CEOs, who have granted themselves salary increases that go far beyond anything they have offered to our union members." 

Haslam-Stroud notes that, "Having taken a wage freeze in two of the three years of the last collective agreement, our members are looking for increases in line with our 57,000 other healthcare professionals in our other health-care sectors. The last employers' position would see members facing another year of salary freezes. ONA has made it very clear to the employer that the days of taking our 'lumps' are long over. As for other monetary provisions, the employers' offer is nothing. 

"ONA remains committed to reaching a collective agreement that recognizes the important contribution our essential Care Coordinators make to our patients and our communities," she said. "We are open to returning to the bargaining table at any time, but we are not prepared to continue to be stonewalled with the same pitiful offer that our members have rejected time and time again." 

Care Coordinators are there to help patients navigate the complex health care system to access the health services they need. They are the foundation of community health care and provide enormous value to the health care system. Whether it be access to speech therapy for a school child or access to home care services that enable a senior to stay at home longer, our Case Coordinators ensure Ontarians have the care they need, when they need it and where they need it. Affected communities include those in the catchment area of the North West LHIN, North East LHIN, North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN, South East LHIN, South West LHIN, Erie-St. Clair LHIN, Central East LHIN, Central LHIN, Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN and Waterloo-Wellington LHIN.

ONA is the union representing 60,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, as well as more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care, the community, public health, clinics and industry.

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

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association

Ontario Nurses' Association: Sheree Bond, [phone], ext.2430; cell: [phone]; [email protected]; Melanie Levenson, [phone], ext. 2369; [email protected]