Arbitrator William Kaplan has released an arbitration decision for more than 3,000 Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) registered nurses (RNs) and health professionals.
Kaplan’s decision means that Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) members in seven southern Ontario CCACs will receive a 1.4-per cent increase in each of two years.
Earlier this year, the (ONA) members at nine provincial CCACs were on strike for 17 days.
“Mr. Kaplan’s award acknowledges our highly skilled and valuable RNs and health professionals, giving them respect they so rightly deserve,” said ONA president Linda Haslam-Stroud.
“We said all along that we wanted to negotiate a fair contract after taking a two-year wage freeze in the last contract, but these employers would rather we froze on the picket lines in minus 30 temperatures and impact our patients and families who rely on community health care (rather) than provide the same wage increase that 57,000 other ONA members received.”
ONA members in the two northern Ontario CCACs will receive a 1.4% increase in year one and a 3.4% increase in year two – providing them with a degree of catch-up with their southern counterparts. The increases are retroactive to April 1, 2014.
“This strike should have been avoided,” Haslam-Stroud said. “It wasted taxpayers’ money and caused our patients to suffer. However, the employers left us with no choice. We were on strike for fairness, and it took the resolve of our members and enormous support from Ontarians to demonstrate to the government and employers that there is broad respect and appreciation by Ontarians for our RNs and Allied Health Care Professionals.”
The current contract expires on March 31, 2016, and as the next round of bargaining is quickly approaching, Haslam-Stroud hopes that the employers rethink their approach.
The ONA’s union represents 60,000 health professionals and more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates.
