Ontario Nurses Wear Their Support for Their Hospital Contract Bargaining Team

TORONTO, ON, February 2, 2023 – Front-line hospital nurses and health-care professionals will hold the first in a series of escalating collective actions today aimed at showing their support for the Ontario Nurses’ Association’s (ONA) hospital bargaining team.

Negotiations are underway for a new contract for the province’s approximately 60,000 hospital-sector registered nurses and health-care professionals. ONA members are building visibility and power by clearly showing their employers their vital priorities for a new deal. Nurses and health-care professionals from across the province are demonstrating their support for their bargaining team by wearing messages that highlight their demands: better staffing, better patient care, and better wages.

This approach is a legal way for front-line members to communicate their contract priorities after being subjected to three years of wage-suppression legislation – deemed unconstitutional by the court – and passed by the Ford government. The legislation – Bill 124 – has worsened Ontario’s already severe nursing shortage., causing workloads that are resulting in longer patient wait times and increasing challenges for nurses and health-care professionals to ensure patients have safe, quality care. Better working conditions will help employers retain current nurses and help recruit back those who have left the system, improving patient care.

Many members are taking to social media to proudly highlight their virtual support for their hospital bargaining team and their demands. Follow #SupportNurses on social media throughout the day.

As negotiations and the campaign continues, ONA members will be participating in other province-wide actions, including provincial pickets on February 23.

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

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