OPSEU/SEFPO members working in health care – including those from Locals 720 and 715 – rallied today at St. Joseph’s Care Group in Thunder Bay to oppose the Ford government’s plan to contract out hospital services to private, for-profit clinics.
The event was part of joint union anti-privatization campaign organized by a coalition of Ontario’s five largest health care unions: OPSEU/SEFPO, ONA, CUPE Ontario, SEIU Healthcare and Unifor.
Laurie Nancekivell, OPSEU/SEFPO First Vice-President/Treasurer, and Ed Arvelin, Region 7 Regional Vice-President, both attended and spoke at the event.
Front-line healthcare workers rallied to demand that hospital executives stand up for public health care and support efforts to stop the handing over of taxpayer funds to private profiteers at the expense of patient care.
Unions are sounding the alarm that unless privatization is stopped, the public health care system that Ontarians have built and relied upon for a century – including our hospitals – will be irreparably damaged.