More than 100 Providence Care Hospital workers in Kingston, Ontario, represented by OPSEU/SEFPO Local 4104, held an information picket on January 27th, demanding that their employer address the workplace violence they experience on the job every day due to short-staffing.
Kingstonist.com reported on the info picket here: ‘Afraid to come to work’: Providence Care workers stage picket over violence in the workplace
The workers — including nurses, unit aides, developmental services staff, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists — complained they are “victims of violence by clients,” primarily in the hospital’s 120-bed mental health care areas.“Violence in our workplace has been steadily increasing. As a result, our members are afraid to come to work,” said Roslynn Blodgett, Vice President of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 4104.
Some members carried placards reading ‘Staff Shortages Cost Lives,’ ‘Providence Please Care,’ and ‘Have You Been Kicked, Punched, Spit On at Work?’, and their 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. information picket attracted honks of support from passing vehicles.
“We’ve had 95 incident reports submitted in a three-month period, and that’s just in one unit,” she said, referring to October through December 2024.
The union has filed over 25 grievances against their employer in the past six or seven months based on health and safety concerns and violence because of under-staffing, she added.