Ontario Nurses' Association condemns hospital arbitration decision as a betrayal of 60,000 nurses and meaningful collective bargaining

TORONTO, Sept. 3, 2025 /CNW/ - The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) condemns the arbitration decision released today, setting the terms of a new two-year contract between the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and more than 60,000 hospital-sector members as a betrayal of nurses, of working women, and the right to meaningful collective bargaining.

ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN, says arbitrator Sheri Price's decision "sets a new low in the history of bargaining for Ontario's nurses. Price's failure to deliver safe staffing ratios sends a clear message to Ontario nurses that we do not deserve the same safety in numbers that other front-line workers in dangerous professions – like police and firefighters – are afforded. It tells a workforce that is overwhelmingly women that the unchecked and brutal violence we face every day is acceptable, and our safety is not important. As nurses, as women, as workers, we will not accept this."

The arbitration decision pushes wages for Ontario hospital nurses further behind, issuing three and 2.25 per cent in 2025 and 2026 based on the comparator of retail clerks and office workers; it rejects basic job protection, giving employers free reign to pursue mass layoffs in a province with the lowest number of registered nurses per capita; and it ignores nurses' top priority detailed in their arbitration submission for minimum safe staffing levels to protect them from rampant violence and allow faster and better care.

The new contract is retroactive to April 1, 2025 and expires March 31, 2027. "Hospital employers and the provincial government have benefitted from more than 15 years of failed bargaining settled by arbitrators that serve the interests of employers, not nurses and working people," says Ariss. "This decision once again puts the lie to the false promise that arbitration can deliver fairness without the right to job action. We wholly reject this decision."

A record number of ONA members organized in their workplaces and communities in recent months to take escalating collective actions in support of their bargaining demands. ONA members will be closely reviewing the decision in the coming days and carefully considering next steps.

Ariss notes, "We are more organized than ever before, and we're not backing down."

ONA is the union representing over 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care, public health, the community, clinics, and industry.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association

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