CORNWALL, Ontario – Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members from various professions throughout the region protested in front of MPP Jim McDonell’s office on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.
At issue for them was what they felt has been the clawing back of hard won workers rights by the Ford Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protesters felt that rights such as overtime pay, staffing levels and worker safety were all being sacrificed to respond to the pandemic.
The roughly two dozen CUPE members in attendance represented professions such as nurses from regional hospitals and school teachers.
“I think we have the right to have the rights we have had for many years,” said nurse Linda Villeneuve of the Hawkesbury General Hospital.
Councillor Elaine MacDonald was in attendance representing the Cornwall and District Labour Council (CDLC) and equated the rights and conditions of workers, to the rights and conditions of those in their care.
“We know that your working conditions are your patient’s healing conditions,” she said. “We know that teacher’s working conditions are their students learning conditions.”
At the beginning of August, CUPE announced 22 protests across the province to address what they feel is a loss of the rights of workers.
“The Progressive Conservative (PC) government’s recognized hospital workers as heroines one minute, then stripped away their basic rights at work the next,” says Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU/CUPE). “The Ford government calls these women heroines, but is actually hurting them very badly by taking away their basic work place rights.”
CUPE Ontario explained in a statement how the province’s Bill 195, also known as the Reopening Ontario Act, took away key protective measures from employees.
“Under the Act, which was rushed through legislature, health care employees can have their shifts changed from days to nights, be reassigned to another job, re-located to another community, laid off without notice, and even have their parental leaves cancelled,” the CUPE statement reads.
Progressive Conservative MPP Jim McDonell explained in a recent media release how Bill 195 was essential for a safe provincial re-opening.
“Bill 195, Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act will permit the Government to respond to the needs of Ontarians affected by COVID-19, by allowing it to extend and change existing public health orders for workplaces, social gatherings and public events,” McDonell’s statement reads. “This legislation takes the place of the Declaration of Emergency that has been extended continuously since March 17. Bill 195 responds to public health needs and changing trends when taking into account existing orders. We want a balanced approach that supports communities as we recover.”
