TORONTO, ON, April 2, 2025 – The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) – the union representing 60,000+ hospital-sector nurses, is entering into two days of arbitration hearings with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) today.
“Once again, contract negotiations with the OHA have failed and are now at arbitration,” says ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN. “Round after round of bargaining for our hospital-sector nurses ends this way – which is both unacceptable and infuriating to ONA and those who are the backbone of patient care.
“Our nurses are becoming increasingly vocal about their treatment by hospital CEOs and the Ford government,” she adds. “Thousands of registered nurses (RNs) across the province have held a series of escalating public actions to spotlight their number one bargaining priority: the implementation of RN-to-patient staffing ratios in the province’s hospitals.”
RN staffing ratios, or having standards for a maximum number of patients per nurse to care for, have been shown to improve the quality of care, reduce the rates of patient complications and death, increase nurse retention and recruitment rates and save health-care funding dollars, she notes. “By contrast, the OHA wants to use a staffing model called “just-in-time” staffing, used by some manufacturers.
“It’s horrifying that our government and hospital CEOs view nurses as nothing but an expense, when in fact doing so is a false economy,” says Ariss. “Staffing ratios not only improve patient care, they help retain nurses and save the health-care system much-needed funding dollars by reducing the length of stay and preventing readmission of patients.”
The hearing with Arbitrator Sheri Price will wrap up tomorrow. She will issue her decision in the coming months.
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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