• Place an order, or for other inquiries:
  • 416-923-3567 ext. 3325
  • content@newsmediacanada.ca
CommunityWireCommunityWireCommunityWireCommunityWire
  • Home
  • Why CommunityWire
  • How It Works
  • Services & Rates
✕

Months of pandemic sacrifices grinding down Kingston hospital staff: CUPE

21 January 2021
Categories
  • Health / Safety
  • Media Release
Tags
  • Ontario Council of Hospital Unions / Canadian Union of Public Employees
https://ochu.on.ca/

KINGSTON, ON –/COMMUNITYWIRE/–  Staff morale is low – stress high at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said today.

Following months of gruelling long hours, critical staff shortages and an environment where there is no pay for staff who have to isolate or quarantine because of exposure to COVID-19, Barb DeRoche the president of CUPE 1974 said her nearly 2000 members are exhausted and demoralized by how they are being treated.

“The promised supplementary payment to personal support workers (PSWs) has yet to materialize.  The constant thought of risk because of inadequate access to appropriate protective equipment and increasingly low staffing levels as the hospital capacity is stretched, are contributing to the feeling among the hospital workforce that they are largely unsupported. Morale is very low,” said DeRoche.

The number of health care workers in Ontario who have contracted COVID-19 was almost 8,000 at the beginning of November 2021. Based on government data that number has nearly doubled to more than 15,000 today.

“As many health care workers have become ill from COVID-19 in the last 3 months as became ill in the previous 10,” said Michael Hurley president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE).

Hospital staff work in a high-risk environment “which is like a high wire: they are not often provided with the essential protective equipment that they need to keep safe,” added Hurley. “If they come into contact with or contract COVID-19 they won’t be paid to isolate or quarantine. In half of cases their WSIB claim will be challenged. It is no wonder that they feel abandoned by the Ford government, as 91 per cent of our members indicated to us in polling.”

CUPE and OCHU are calling on the Ford government to provide the necessary personal protective equipment and pay for exposure or illness due to Covid-19.

“This is the minimum the government can do to show that they’ve got hospital workers’ back,” says DeRoche.

-30-

For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon
CUPE Communications
416-559-9300
syeadon@cupe.ca

Share
ENGLISH
FRANÇAIS

Submit Your News

EVENTS CALENDAR

  • MEDIA ADVISORY: Canadian Hearing Services and WSIB workers rally in Windsor for fair bargaining with support from Marit Stiles
    2 July 2025
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: OCEU President Harry Goslin to Join Striking Hamilton Water Workers at City Hall
    2 July 2025
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: OCEU President Harry Goslin to Join WSIB Strike Picket Line in Guelph
    26 June 2025

RECENT RELEASES

  • Plug’n Drive and The City of Calgary Bring Electric Vehicle Test Drives to Calgary
    17 July 2025
  • Fifth Annual Light Up Chinatown! Festival Wraps up the Summer in Chinatown, Celebrating Small Businesses
    15 July 2025
  • Workers at Toronto Seniors Housing ratify new collective agreement
    9 July 2025
  • New Report: 88% of Canadians Are Missing Treatable Health Risks, Even As Personal Health Data Reaches Record Levels
    8 July 2025
  • Ontario Police Leaders Launch Answer the Call Campaign to Recruit the Next Generation of Officers
    7 July 2025

CATEGORIES

Be seen where the audience is looking
News Media Canada
2-610 Ford Dr., #218
Oakville, Ontario L6J 7W4

416-923-3567 or toll-free 1-877-305-2262
content@newsmediacanada.ca

© Copyright 2024 News Media Canada. All rights reserved.