Regent Park hub halts services over strike
Management says budget can’t fit wage demands unless province boosts funding
For more than a week, 115 workers have been on strike at the Regent Park Community Health Centre, the result of a wage dispute between management and staff.
The centre, at the corner of Dundas and Parliament, is a community hub offering primary care to over 3,500 patients and other services to thousands more. After-school homework-aid programs are now being offered virtually due the work stoppage, but many services for the homeless and harm-reduction programs have been suspended.
On Monday, about 50 workers walked the picket line as cars driving by honked in support as they drove by. “Respect the front-line health care workers” and “fair deal now,” workers chanted.
The strikers are the majority of the centre’s staff, including nurses, social workers and administrative workers. Represented by their union, OPSEU Local 5115, they are asking for a 10 per cent increase over two years — 6.5 per cent in the first year, 3.5 per cent in the second.
“We’re essentially fighting for a livable wage,” said Kirsty Millwood, president of the union local and a front-line health worker at the centre. “We lost a lot from Bill 124, which was a wage suppression bill that has now been repealed. We’ve worked throughout the whole pandemic on one per cent per year increases. Now we’re trying to catch up on the cost of living.”
But without more funding from the provincial government, centre management says it would be next to impossible to meet the demands without layoffs and program cuts.
According to Paulos Gebreyesus, the centre’s executive director, the facility is effectively closed, with many clients being directed to other clinics and hospitals. There are 20 doctors and management staff working to provide care to patients with the most serious needs. He says remaining open at all has become a day-to-day decision.
“This is not sustainable. We can’t do this for much longer,” he said.
Gebreyesus says he understands that his staff are struggling and feeling the effects from Bill 124 and the high cost of living in Toronto, pointing out that most of the workers make in the $45,000-to-$75,000 range. He says that management’s counter-offer is a three per cent raise for the first year and two per cent in the second year, which is what he says the budget can handle.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said it “does not comment on ongoing labour negotiations.”