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Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018
Bargaining
breaks down
for Ontario
nurses
TORONTO — After 13 days at
the bargaining table, contract
talks between the Ontario Nurs-
es' Association (ONA) and the
Ontario Hospital Association
(OHA) broke down on Feb. 3.
"Unfortunately, 10 days of
talks and three days of mediation
have resulted in little meaningful
progress in reaching a new con-
tract for Ontario's highly skilled
and educated registered nurses
and health-care profession-
als," said Vicki McKenna, ONA
president. "The concessions be-
ing demanded by the OHA team
show that these employers are
unwilling to acknowledge the re-
ality of the shortage of registered
nurses and how it diminishes the
ability of front-line registered
nurses (RNs) to deliver quality
patient care."
Over the past decade, Ontario
hospitals have cut thousands of
RNs from the front lines. Ontar-
io now has the worst RN-to-pop-
ulation ratio of any province in
the country. Studies have found
that as RNs are required to care
for more patients, patients are at
increased risk of suffering com-
plications such as pneumonia,
infection, hospital readmission
and even death, said the union.
Sobeys locks
out hundreds
of workers
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.
— Sobeys has begun a lockout of
more than 600 Safeway workers,
which the union is calling illegal,
according to a complaint filed by
the United Food and Commer-
cial Workers Canada (UFCW),
Local 1518 at the B.C. Labour
Relations Board on Feb. 1.
The complaint comes in the
wake of Sobeys' announcement
that it will close 10 Safeway
stores across the lower mainland
of British Columbia. Sobeys fur-
ther stated that it would consider
re-opening five of those loca-
tions if the company received an
"appropriate" collective agree-
ment for FreshCo, its discount
banner from Ontario, said the
union.
The timing of the announce-
ment coupled with the nature of
the FreshCo news and the fact
that the pharmacies at the five
locations earmarked for Fresh-
Co will remain open provide
grounds for the illegal lockout
complaint, said Ivan Limpright,
UFCW 1518 president.
"Look, we're about to begin
negotiations with the company.
And Sobeys picks this moment
to announce 10 store closures?"
he said.
York public
health nurses
reach tentative
agreement
NEWMARKET, Ont. — Public
health nurses working for the
Regional Municipality of York in
Ontario reached a tentative two-
year deal on Feb. 2, according to
Vicki McKenna, Ontario Nurses'
Association (ONA) president.
"We are very pleased that our
public health nurses will be able
to continue working to keep their
community healthy and safe,"
said McKenna. "ONA members
will vote on the deal this evening
and ONA is recommending rati-
fication. The employer will hold
its ratification vote on Feb. 15."
This was a difficult round of
negotiations, said McKenna,
and about 250 public health
nurses remained optimistic that
a negotiated contract could be
reached.
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LABOUR LENS
Workers of plane maker Airbus take part in a 24-hour strike of German Metal Workers' Union IG Metall in
Hamburg, Germany, on Feb. 2.
