By joining OPSEU…
- You gain security
- You gain a stronger voice
- You gain representation
As highly respected professionals, you deserve a bargaining agent. At St. Joseph's hospital, nurses have union representation and doctors have the OMA. OPSEU is there for hospital professionals as your ally, your insurance and your protection.
Healthcare Cuts and Privatization
Hospital cuts, delisting and privatization of services are vital issues that matter to all Ontarians in general and to hospital professionals in particular. OPSEU members don’t take privatization or cutbacks lying down.
In the past few years, we’ve had significant successes. In early 2014, we worked with the Ontario Health Coalition to raise concerns about the quality of care in private clinics and won a moratorium on services moving out of hospitals. In 2016, OPSEU hospital professionals lobbied MPPs and put pressure on the Ontario government, which resulted in increased hospital base funding and staving off hospital cuts.
Workload
When you believe you are being asked to perform more work than is consistent with proper patient care, you have options with OPSEU. Our process allows you to sit down with management to solve the problem, and to bring the concern to higher levels, up to and including the CEO, so the problem is resolved.
Job Security
By joining OPSEU, you protect yourself from arbitrary layoffs and terminations. You will be able to sit down with the hospital to discuss options and alternatives. No union can promise complete job security, but OPSEU members have many options to minimize the effects of layoffs and restructuring through generous voluntary exit packages, recall rights or applying to other OPSEU positions. OPSEU’s voluntary exit options include two weeks of salary for every year of service for up to 52 weeks. You don’t have to fight unfair terminations or layoffs on your own. There is strength in OPSEU.
Protecting Your Work
The benefits you have as a non-unionized employee today may be gone tomorrow. Management has no legal obligation to maintain your terms of employment as they are today. A collective agreement is a legally binding document that can’t be altered. You can count on the protection and security it gives you as an employee.
Permanent Work
Contract or temporary positions don’t last forever in a unionized environment. If the funding has been allocated for a period greater than a year, OPSEU works to convert those positions to permanent positions. You have job security with OPSEU.
Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value
OPSEU works hard to ensure that you are compensated fairly, and to guarantee that all staff receive equal pay for equal work. If you do the same work, you should receive the same pay. It’s only fair.
Professional Roles
When you join OPSEU, you are represented as a professional in your workplace. Your right to perform work covered under your scope of practice is safeguarded by your union.
Professional Liability
Because OPSEU represents over 25,000 hospital professionals, we are able to negotiate a great professional liability insurance package at low rates. OPSEU also provides you with legal support if you ever face a challenge to your professional livelihood through a complaint at your college.
For more information: www.stjoestaff.ca, 1-807-700-1393