Repeal Bill 124.
That call from about 40 health care workers and others outside of MPP Vic Fedeli’s Main Street office Wednesday morning.
The bill enables the government to manage public sector wages.
“We’re here to say we believe we should not have to beg that our salaries not be cut in the face of soaring inflation,” Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, told the crowd.
He says Fedeli is a prominent member of cabinet and they’re asking for his support in repealing the bill.
“The legislation says that healthcare workers are limited to one percent wage increases at a time when inflation is soaring, which means real wage cuts,” he says. “And an inability to bargain psychological and other mental health supports for health care workers in long-term care, home care and hospitals, through the pandemic.”
Hurley says they plan on keeping the pressure on the government heading into the election.
Henri Giroux, Chair of the North Bay Health Coalition, says they’re watching to see who is elected in June.
“It doesn’t matter what stripe it is, but whatever government is in there we want to make sure they work for us,” he told the crowd. “Let’s give them our agenda and they better take our agenda, otherwise we will fight back.”
Rallies have been held all over Ontario with a regional rally planned for the northeast early in May.
