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| Bargaining Continues: Updates from the table On June 23rd and 24th, your HPD central bargaining team met with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) for a second time, with support from a conciliation officer. We entered bargaining committed to having a productive dialogue with the OHA on outstanding monetary and non-monetary items. We presented new language around AI protections, strengthening job security and creating lasting solutions to the issues facing hospital professionals across the province. Unfortunately, there was no meaningful movement from the OHA, and we remain far apart in our approaches to bargaining for better health care in Ontario. The OHA continues to uphold their expectation that hospital professionals do more with less – using excuses of government underfunding to justify a sub-standard wage increase offer of less than 2% per year. The result of which will further exacerbate the recruitment and retention crisis in our hospitals, leading to an increased dependence on expensive private staffing agencies and pushing hospitals into further financial precarity. The OHA continues to stress the need for us to be “flexible” – in our hours, our workload, our wages and our work locations – without recognizing how far we are already stretched. From 2022 to 2025, the number of double overtime hours worked in our hospitals has increased 5,754%. That is 58 times higher than when we last bargained in 2022. This is a clear symptom of a worsening staffing crisis that has left us understaffed, overworked and burnt out as we are left to deal with the fallout on the front lines.Hospital professionals should not have to subsidize services in our communities through accepting grueling working conditions and substandard wage increases – and your bargaining team will continue to fight for the urgent and long-term staffing solutions our hospitals need. |
| Send a message to Ontario health leaders and call on them to commit the resources and funding needed to combat the recruitment and retention crisis Ontario hospitals face every day. |
| Next StepsOur latest meeting with the OHA marked the end of conciliation and we are heading to mediation July 21st and 22nd. We are preparing for these upcoming dates and remain hopeful that with the assistance of a mediator we will be able to make meaningful progress. |
| Bargaining Town HallYour bargaining team will be hosting regular Bargaining Town Halls throughout negotiations. These Town Halls will be open to all HPD members and will be your chance to hear real-time updates, ask questions and keep up with our progress at the table. Come out to hear about how things are going and get involved! Our next Town Hall is scheduled for July 24th from 7pm to 8pm. |
| *More Dates to Come as Bargaining Progresses* |
| As bargaining continues, your team will continue to keep you updated on our progress at the table. We encourage you to get involved, attend bargaining town halls, engage with member mobilizers and help us tell the provincial government to properly fund health care in Ontario! In Solidarity,Your HPD Bargaining Team: Betty Palmieri – ChairL206 – St. Joseph’s Health Care Hamilton Brenda Allan – Vice-ChairL215 – Niagara Health System Adrian-Alexandru BalojinL206 – St. Joseph’s Health Care Hamilton Katie LambertL106 – London Health Sciences Centre Tanya NiemiL227 – Headwaters Healthcare Centre Orangeville Megan NorthL373 – Peterborough Regional Health Centre Bev WeaverL4106 – Kingston Health Sciences Centre |