Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
- June 18, 2020
June 18, 2020 Dear Premier Ford, As part of my promise to work with you, and in response to your public request to hear from frontline inspectors, to resolve the terrible tragedy that has occurred in our long-term care system I am sending you solutions from their perspective. The attached submission is the result of...
- May 29, 2020
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas conducted multiple news interviews recently responding to Doug Ford’s claim that he is ‘taking bullets’ for the union in regards to the crisis in long term care homes. Thomas spoke to Evan Solomon, host of CTV News channel’s political program, POWER PLAY on May 28 and CTV News Ottawa May...
- April 23, 2020
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says bringing Ontario’s long-term care directly and fully under public sector control and funding is the only way to fix a broken system that is falling apart during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We respect the conclusion drawn by a clearly emotional Premier Ford today that government must do a better job...
- March 12, 2019
OPSEU’s Ambulance Division and Ministry of Health MERC Team want to celebrate the important work that Ambulance Communications Officers (ACOs) do during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week this year (April 14-20, 2019)! If you are an ACO and an OPSEU member, we want to hear from you! We are creating a promotional video about the...
- December 19, 2018
Toronto – The staffing shortage at the Cambridge Central Ambulance Communications Centre (CACC) has reached a crisis level, and according to OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas, patients’ lives are at risk. “Ambulance Communications Officers (ACOs) are the first line of defense in a medical emergency,” said Thomas. “But they need the appropriate tools, resources and staffing...
- October 17, 2017
The union representing over 7,000 mental health care workers is calling on the province to help end “an epidemic of violence” that has caused workplace stress to skyrocket and is sending injured workers to hospital on a regular basis. “Mental health facilities and community agencies are not doing nearly enough to protect their employees from...
- June 15, 2017
The provincial government has signed another quick deal giving thousands of civil servants a 7.5-per-cent raise over four years, prompting accusations the Liberals are buying labour peace for next June’s election. Read the full story on the website of the Toronto Star. Related: OPSEU in the News
- May 27, 2017
The two-step election process to elect the 2017 OPS bargaining teams began on Saturday, May 27. As a result of amendments to the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act, OPSEU bargaining teams negotiate two separate, stand-alone collective agreements: one for the Unified bargaining unit and one for the Correctional bargaining unit. Accordingly, two separate regional bargaining...
- February 23, 2017
The OPSEU collective agreement in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) expires on December 31, 2017. In preparation for bargaining, all OPSEU members in the OPS are invited to complete one of two 2017 demand-set surveys online. The survey will be live from February 23 to March 13, 2017. As a result of recent amendments to...
- February 15, 2017
Thousands of OPSEU members took part in four recent telephone town halls for workers in the Ontario Public Service (OPS). Two were held on February 9 for members of the Correctional Bargaining Unit. It will be bargaining for a new standalone collective agreement, to be effective January 1, 2018. Two more town halls took place...
- January 19, 2017
Ambulance dispatchers say they're getting electrical jolts through their headsets Workers at an ambulance dispatch centre in Hamilton say they are enduring electric shocks at work, but say their employer isn't taking their complaints about it seriously enough. Dispatchers say they have been jolted through their headsets at their electronic workstations, where they receive emergency 9-1-1 calls...
- January 18, 2017
Hamilton – The President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is demanding immediate action in the wake of a series of severe electric shocks sustained by ambulance dispatch staff – incidents that the employer has dismissed as “acoustic events.” At a press conference held this morning outside Hamilton’s EMS Operations Centre, Warren (Smokey)...