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All Out to Reverse the Anti-Social Offensive Treasury Board Attack on Nurses in Barrie, OntarioThe Ontario Treasury Board has invoked anti-worker legislation Bill 124 to reject as invalid a negotiated first collective agreement between Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie and Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) health-care professionals.
President McKenna said, "This fight is not over and we will continue to advocate to the Ontario government for the right of health-care professionals to their well-deserved, hard-earned and freely negotiated compensation." Workers' Forum denounces the criminalization of workers' struggles and demands. Nurses have every right to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers and freely decide if a negotiated agreement is acceptable or not. Nurses and other health care workers are the backbone in our collective fight against the pandemic. This backward decision and the entire anti-worker Bill 124 are anti-social. The reactionary Ford government passed Bill 124 in 2019 to directly target the right of registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and health-care professionals to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers. The Bill dictates wage increases be held to a maximum of one per cent total compensation per year for three years. The Bill even overrides the decisions of arbitrators. The ONA writes, "Because of Bill 124, the arbitrator who recently released the new collective agreement for hospital-sector members clearly stated that Bill 124 tied his hands with regard to monetary issues." Bill 124 and the attack on Barrie nurses prove the Ontario government is anti-social, in the service of narrow private interests. Any government or state institution which thinks it can attack the working class with impunity is not fit to govern. In the federal election the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada has put forward an explicit program to Defend the Dignity of Labour! Negotiate Don't Dictate! Defend the Claims Workers Are Entitled to Make by Right! Oppose the Criminalization of Workers' Struggles and Demands! Our Security Lies in Our Fight for the Rights of All! (Photo: OCHU)
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The ONA
denounced the decision as, "A devastating day
for Ontario labour." ONA President Vicki
McKenna, RN said on September 2, "Treasury
Board has informed ONA and Royal Victoria
Hospital in Barrie that it is denying an
exemption from its wage-suppression
legislation, Bill 124, that both parties
jointly requested. The Ford government goes
further and now says that a freely negotiated
settlement is inconsistent with the purpose of
its, likely unconstitutional, legislation. ONA
believes this is just another demonstration of
this government's disrespect and disregard of
female-dominated health-care professionals and
this supports our position that Bill 124
interferes with the right to freely
collectively bargain -- a key argument in
ONA's Constitutional challenge of the bill."