A picket line went up in front of Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH) on North Park St. in Belleville Monday morning the first day of a strike by public health nurses.
About 50 members of the Ontario Nurses Association voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike last week.
They’ve been without a contract since December 2022.
Local 31 bargaining unit president Josh Davidson Marcon says nurses do not want to be on strike but are demanding fair wages that put them more in line with their hospital counterparts.
He says HPEPH only made one offer and did not allow for any negotiations.
Davidson Marcon says the employer is basing its offer on contracts that were in place under Bill 124 and its wage restrictions.
That bill has since been deemed unconstitutional.
“I can tell you that we’re at least two per cent behind on the previous two contracts, or the previous two years and this year if we accept their offer we’d be close to seven per cent behind our peers in the hospital sector.”
Striking Hastings Prince Edward Public Health nurses listen to a speech by ONA representative Josh Davidson Marcon, August 21, 2023. (Photo: Alana Cameron/Quinte News)
The union claims that the Board of Health received nearly $1 million in additional funding through municipal levies this year but refuses to pay public nurses wages that will keep up with inflation.
Davidson Marcon says Public Health rejected a request by the union to go to voluntary arbitration so nurses could keep working.
“If they really believed in their numbers then they would have accepted voluntary arbitration because they could have proven those numbers. But they know that based on the other agreements, that voluntary arbitration would get us an agreement that would be fair for both sides, there’d be zero strike. We wouldn’t be out here doing this, we would be continuing to provide the services to the community that we love.”
He says nurses want to be working but the employer has taken every action to push them out the door.
Striking Hastings Prince Edward Public Health nurses on the picket line, August 21, 2023. (Photo: Alana Cameron/Quinte News)
While they are open to returning to the table, Davidson Marcon says it does not appear the employer is ready to do so.
In a statement on Friday, Dr. Ethan Toumishey, Medical Officer of Health and CEO at HPEPH, was optimistic that the striking nurses would reconsider the presented offer which he called a fair and reasonable offer.
“I want to assure the community that in preparing the offer to our nurses, and throughout negotiations, we have worked diligently to balance their needs with the needs of our other employees and our clients,” said Dr Toumishey. “While we are disappointed that ONA members have chosen to reject our offer, we recognize that it is their legal right to strike.”
The strike is affecting several services including well-baby care, immunizations, sexual health and disease monitoring, however, all HPEPH offices remain open.
A full list of service disruptions can be found on the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health website.
Visitors entering HPEPH parking lots may also be briefly delayed by the picket line.
