OPSEU/SEFPO is calling on Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to take immediate action to end Canadian Blood Services’ (CBS) blood-plasma collection partnership with for-profit Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols in Ontario.
The call from the union, which represents Canadian Blood Services workers across Ontario, follows reports of three donor fatalities in Manitoba, a lawsuit over a donation-related kidney injury at a Winnipeg collection centre, as well as four non-compliant safety inspections of Grifols donation centres in other provinces.
“Since the beginning of this partnership with Grifols, CBS workers have been sounding the alarm that a for-profit blood-plasma donation model is exploitative and could put donors’ health at serious risk,” said OPSEU/SEFPO Blood Services and Diagnostics sector Chair, Brent MacPherson. “We’re devastated to see these warnings now become a reality. The Voluntary Blood Donations Act was implemented to protect donors’ safety. The government must step in before history repeats itself and we see another widespread tragedy.”
Paid blood donation is banned in Ontario, as per the Voluntary Blood Donations Act, 2014, legislated in accordance with recommendations from the Krever Inquiry following the tainted blood scandal. However, CBS took advantage of a legal loophole in 2022 to circumvent the Act, signing a 15-year blood-plasma collection partnership with Grifols.
Plasma donors at Grifols collection centres are paid up to $100 per donation, with incentives given for frequent donations – a model which CBS workers have long warned would target low income, vulnerable communities. MacPherson noted that it is particularly chilling that one of the donors who died was a 22-year-old international student who had come to Canada with big dreams.
During donation, blood is collected from a donor’s arm through a machine, plasma is extracted from red blood cells and platelets, and then the remaining blood components are returned to the patient’s body.
OPSEU/SEFPO has repeatedly called for an end to CBS’s partnership with Grifols, calling it an ethical violation of CBS’s duty to safeguard the public, voluntary blood system and donor base.
“It is unacceptable that, under the watch of Premier Ford and Minister Jones, the integrity of our blood donation system is being compromised. How many lives must be impacted before Ford decides to take action?” said OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick. “It’s time to listen to the warning signs: put an end to this for-profit, paid plasma donation agreement and focus on investing in the public, voluntary blood donation system that Ontarians can trust.”
OPSEU/SEFPO represents more than 200,000 public service workers, including drivers, plasma associates, donor services representatives, donor care associates, laboratory assistants, and clerical staff at Canadian Blood Services donation centres across Ontario.