CUPE Protests Job Cuts at Joseph Brant Hospital

By: Laura Steiner, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Milton Reporter

Health care workers from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) held a demonstration outside Joseph Brant Hospital, protesting the elimination of 10 frontline positions. Union representatives warn that the cuts pose significant risks to patient care and highlight the Ontario government’s ongoing underfunding of hospitals.

The positions being cut include seven housekeepers, an operating room assistant, and an occupational therapist, all of which CUPE says are critical to maintaining patient care standards.

“Doug Ford’s government is cutting hospital budgets,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), which represents 50,000 staff across the province. “At a time when the Conservatives should be focused on meeting demand by opening new beds to reduce hallway healthcare, to cut wait times and improve care, they are cutting funding and staffing. Hospitals like Joseph Brant are left cutting frontline positions to balance their budgets, and patients are denied access or kept waiting for care. Frontline hospital staff just won’t accept that for our patients.”

CUPE’s research estimates that Ontario hospitals need to increase staffing levels by about five per cent annually to meet rising demand. Yet, Hurley pointed to alarming trends, such as the daily backlog of 2,000 patients waiting for beds in hospital hallways and over 250,000 people on surgical waitlists across the province.

Jacqui Curtis, a registered practical nurse and president of CUPE 1065, expressed concerns about the growing strain on hospital workers at Joseph Brant.

“We are seeing a growing volume of patients without a corresponding increase in staffing,” Curtis said. “The decline in our working conditions is causing higher levels of exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout.”

A recent survey commissioned by OCHU-CUPE underscores the mental health struggles faced by hospital workers. Among those surveyed, 62 per cent reported high stress levels, while 44 per cent cited trouble sleeping due to workplace conditions.

“Frontline workers are critical to the functioning of a hospital, but it seems that this government has it in for us,” Curtis said. “You’d think the government would be investing in improving our working conditions and providing us resources to best serve patients. Instead, they cut our salaries with Bill 124 and demand that we do more and more with less – which is why we have a staffing crisis. These new cuts will drive more staff to leave and force patients to wait and wait.”

CUPE’s demonstration drew attention to the hospital staffing crisis, which workers say will only worsen with further cuts. They called on the provincial government to increase funding to hospitals and address the root causes of high workloads and low morale in the healthcare sector.