Unions protest suspension of rights

THUNDER BAY – Unions representing health, social service, and municipal workers are calling on the provincial government to end emergency measures allowing employers to override collective bargaining agreement provisions.

Around 40 members of CUPE, OPSEU, and Unifor turned out to a rally outside MPP Michael Gravelle’s Algoma Street office on Tuesday, vowing to fight changes introduced in Bill 195.

Similar rallies took place in Kenora and Fort Frances last week, and more than 20 more are planned across the remainder of the province stretching into October.

Labour leaders called the campaign a necessary response to an unacceptable violation of workers’ rights, saying the province's actions didn't match its rhetoric celebrating workers as frontline heroes.

Bill 195 came into force July 24, replacing the provincial emergency declaration made in March. It hands the power to change, revoke, and extend emergency measures to cabinet, rather than the legislature, for up to two years.

Some of the measures in place allow employers to override collective bargaining provisions by, for example, changing schedules without notice, reassigning workers to new positions, cancelling or deferring vacation, and even suspending grievance processes.

Michael Hurley, who heads CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, was in town for Tuesday’s rally. He said the measures had been understandable when passed at the height of the pandemic, given widespread outbreaks in long-term care homes and fears of overrun ICUs.

Now, with cases low and few remaining outbreaks in care homes, he said it’s time to restore workers’ rights – adding the emergency measures could be quickly re-implemented if needed in the future.

“Under this bill, a [worker] can be told, you’re moving to the night shift tomorrow with no notice, and what that means for your small children at home is not their problem. That’s not necessary, and it’s not acceptable.”

Andy Savela, director of health care for Unifor, said Bill 195 was not about safety concerns, but shoring up staffing in an underfunded long-term care sector.

“The province continues to use the COVID-19 crisis to override our collective agreements and stabilize staffing in health care facilities, particularly long-term care, that aren’t in outbreak,” he said.

Few employers in Thunder Bay had so far made use of the measures allowing them to override bargained rights, he said, although he pointed to examples of restrictions to vacations and leave.

In other parts of the province, Hurley reported, employers had redeployed workers to other jobs, changed schedules, and eliminated jobs.

The situation was one factor prompting lower-paid workers to leave the sector, Savela believes.

“We know that there’s a mass exodus of personal support workers, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “A lot of people have left and found work where they’re not at risk, where they get compensated about as much.”

Savela acknowledged the support of MPP Michael Gravelle, who spoke to the crowd Tuesday and pledged to support their efforts. However, he added the previous Liberal government had also contributed to years of underfunding in the sector, leading to poor compensation, lack of full-time work, and unmanageable patient-to-staff ratios.

“This is a crisis decades in the making – it didn’t just happen with the pandemic,” he said, pointing to a scathing report on the sector released earlier this year by the Canadian Armed Forces .

Gravelle called Bill 195 a “horrible overreach,” saying emergency powers should be left to the legislature. He had not yet heard complaints of employers violating collective agreement provisions in Thunder Bay, but was disturbed that possibility could loom over workers for years.