Hundreds of Ontario nurses took to the streets demanding better treatment.
On the 2nd, union members of the Ontario Nurses’ Association held a large-scale street march in downtown Toronto and held a rally in the Ontario Council in Queens Park.
They are demanding more staff and higher wages.
The nurses union, which represents 68,000 RNs, has been negotiating with the Ontario Hospital Association, which represents 140 hospitals, on treatment improvement since the end of January, but the disagreement has not been narrowed.
If an agreement cannot be reached through mediation, an arbitrator will intervene in early May.
The nurses’ union criticized the Ontario government’s 2018 law to limit salary increases for civil servants for causing a serious shortage of medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the backlash from nurses intensified, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, “We will continue to replenish the number of nurses and there are enough prospective nurses currently studying.”
However, the opposition party raised its voice, saying, “The government’s words and actions, which have taken measures to raise the annual salary of public officials by 1% for three years, are different.”