Long-Term Care Nurses and Health Professionals Picket Across Ontario, Calling for Care Over Profit

TORONTO, ON, April 12, 2024 /CNW/ - Hundreds of Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) members held 37 pickets at corporate, for-profit long-term care homes in communities across Ontario today. Nurses and health-care professionals are calling out for-profit nursing home corporations, demanding that they stop compromising resident care while pocketing billion-dollar revenues.

"We are fighting for care, not profit, advocating for the vulnerable residents of Ontario's corporate-owned long-term care homes," says ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN. "Our residents deserve to receive quality care, yet what we see is wealthy corporations making record profits on the backs of our residents and those who care for them. It's not right, and it's not safe."

ONA will soon enter contract talks for its 3,000 members in this sector, including registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered practical nurses, personal support workers and guest attendants. The top-two bargaining demands of the union are staffing ratios to improve resident care and equal wages with nurses and health-care professionals in hospitals to help retain and attract more workers to this sector.

"Current staffing levels make it very, very difficult to ensure residents get the care they need," notes Ariss. "If these corporations don't invest in staffing ratios and equal wages, it will continue to have repercussions for our hospitals, communities and across the health-care system. The pandemic should have been a wake-up call, but instead it's business as usual for the likes of Extendicare and other for-profit nursing homes corporations."

"We won't give up this fight for our residents who deserve dignity and the best possible care, and our communities that need a strong long-term care system."

ONA is the union representing over 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care, public health, the community, clinics, and industry.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association