ONA UPDATE: SUMMER 2013 - Ontario Nurses' Association

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ONTARIO NURSES’ ASSOCIATION Bargaining/ Labour Relations E ONA’s Have a Say questionnaire, which asks members in all sectors about their bargaining priorities to help us prepare for the next round of central negotiations, is posted on our website and filled out by thousands of members in all sectors. E Following elections in all five ONA regions, the 2014 Hospital Central Negotiating Team is announced, and will be oriented in September. E Central hospital bargaining dates have been confirmed with the Ontario Hospital Association, and will commence in November 2013. E With the next round of central negotiations rapidly approaching, the most recent Hospital Contract Interpretation teleconnect focuses on preparing for a successful round of local bargaining. E During a discussion with ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud during a Nursing Week event, Sault Area Hospital CEO Ron Gagnon agrees to increase RN staffing in the hospital’s emergency department. E At its June meeting, the ONA Board of Directors approves a Provincial Development Services Network, a new connect for our members in Development Services. E Our most recent long-term care teleconnect discusses strategies that can be used when ONA members become targets of resident abuse. Government Relations/ Work with Allies E ONA calls for an immediate province-wide moratorium on the elimination of registered nursing positions, just days after the government announces in its budget that it will freeze hospital funding as part of a strategy to put more resources into community care. E The government must create and fill thousands of new RN positions in various sectors of the health care system to help improve nurses’ health, an ONA research paper, entitled The Cycle of Sacrifice: Nurses’ Health and the Ontario Health System, states. E With a potential provincial election this fall, ONA puts the wheels in motion for a fightback against the serious attack on labour from the federal and provincial Tories, which threatens not only our hard-fought-for rights but our very survival as a union, by holding member focus groups, and educating and soliciting ideas from Local leaders and staff. E As part of this plan, ONA reaches out to members in the ridings affected by the summer byelections called after the resignations of five MPPs to ensure they are well informed of the right-wing agenda. E Members step up to the plate when we ask them to contact senators and express their objections with the discriminatory Bill C-377, which requires unions to provide detailed annual financial information that will be made public, and as a result, the bill will be amended. E ONA joins with our fellow unions to hold our second Rich and the Rest of Us town hall forum in Kingston, timed to coincide with the June Provincial Coordinators Meeting in the same city, to spread an important message that collective bargaining is under severe threat while inequality is on the rise. 2 ONA UPDATE: SUMMER 2013
E Board members, Local leaders and members join our allies at the Shadow Summit and Mass Rally in Niagara-on-the-Lake, sponsored by the Ontario and Canadian Health Coalitions and the Council of Canadians, which is timed to coincide with the last meeting of all premiers before the expiration of the National Health Accord. E ONA is monitoring the implementation of the government’s Make No Little Plans, a comprehensive strategic plan for the public health sector; will provide input on any sector-wide human resources strategy; and will discuss this plan with our public health leaders during our public health connects. E The clever and eye-catching poster used in ONA’s Value the Invaluable campaign, depicting an action-figure nurse run off her feet, is named best poster at the Canadian Association of Labour Media Awards, which recognize excellence in union communications. E ONA adds our name to a letter to (then) Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, expressing concerns that Health Canada has not examined the impact of paid donor plasma facilities on our voluntary blood and plasma donation system nor considered the location of these facilities, and that there is no indication plasma collected will be purchased by Canadian Blood Services. E ONA hosts the tremendously successful Biennial Convention of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) in Toronto, where delegates from across the country hear from a number of prominent guest speakers, including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, vote on key resolutions to guide the organization’s work, and participate in two rallies: one in support of a national standard for mental health care, and one to protest cuts to local hospitals. E For her tireless advocacy work on behalf of members and their patients/clients/residents and her many years of effective leadership, ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud receives the prestigious 2013 Bread and Roses Award from the CFNU. E ONA Director/Chief Negotiator Dan Anderson also receives the CFNU’s 2013 Public Bread and Roses Award, presented to an individual who is not a member of a Canadian nurses’ union, but who demonstrates relevant accomplishments, for dedicating his life to improving the working conditions of RNs and advocating for our public health care system. ONA UPDATE: SUMMER 2013 ONTARIO NURSES’ ASSOCIATION 3
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