Dear sisters and brothers,
Many of you have been lobbying your CEO’s about the fact that the pandemic pay subsidy does not apply to all hospital workers.Thank you very much for your efforts.Yesterday the Ontario Hospital Association and other organizations sent this open letter to the Ford government asking for everyone to be covered.Please encourage your members to complete the new email action on the ochu.on.ca website.

Ontario Council of Hospital UnionsFounded in 1982, the 34,000 member Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE is the hospital division of the 700,000 member Canadian Union of Public Employees.ochu.on.ca

In solidarity, Michael, Sharon, and Louis

Joint Open Letter on the Implementation of Pandemic Pay

Premier Doug Ford 
Queen’s Park Toronto,
ON M7A 1A1

OPEN LETTER 

Dear Premier Ford, 
As a broad group of healthcare stakeholders whose members employ tens of thousands of front line workers in the fight against COVID 19, we write to you today to seek immediate clarity on the implementation details and timing of the release of pandemic pay to support frontline workers employed by organizations funded by the Ministry of Health and the LHINs. 

On April 25th, we each applauded the Government of Ontario’s announcement that frontline workers would be recognized with temporary pandemic pay for the current challenges they face keeping Ontarians healthy, safe and informed during the pandemic. 

A month later, it is still not clear whether the efforts of all of our healthcare workers will be recognized or if pandemic pay is restricted to a subset of employees. Also, funding has yet to flow to the front line and in fact for those front-line workers whose organizations are funded by the Ministry of Health and/or LHINs have yet to receive clarity on whether or not they will be considered front line workers eligible for pandemic pay. This is contributing to extreme morale issues at the front line at a time when staff need to be supported most. It is also creating unnecessary conflict for employers who are left trying to explain to their employees why they cannot provide neither clarity nor the pay itself. 

Together, we are urging the Provincial Government to immediately communicate the implementation details, including confirmation that the funding is for all workers on the frontline, and release funding so that frontline workers can start to see the benefit now while the economy is opening up and they are still hard at work to contain the pandemic. 

Additionally, to recognize the critical services provided and the team effort required in fighting COVID-19, we continue to urge that pandemic pay be applied to all non-management front line providers, including regulated frontline staff. 

Every day, it becomes increasingly difficult to see this great initiative, that has such great promise for health care worker recognition, be undermined by delay. 

We thank you for your attentiveness to our request and look forward to your reply. 

Yours truly, (Original Signed By) 
Justin J. Bates, CEO, Ontario Pharmacists Association 
Anthony Dale, CEO, Ontario Hospital Association 
Lisa Levin, CEO, AdvantAge Ontario 
Kavita Mehta, CEO, Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario 
Kimberly Moran, CEO, Children’s Mental Health Ontario 
Camille Quenneville, CEO, Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario 
Deborah Simon, CEO, Ontario Community Support Association 
Adrienne Spafford, CEO, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario 
Adrianna Tetley, CEO, Alliance for Healthier Communities 
Alisha Tharani, Executive Director, Mental Health Partners 
Samantha Yau, President, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists Ontario Branch 

Cc: Hon. Peter Bethlanfalvy, President of the Treasury Board 
Hon. Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health 
James Wallace, Chief of Staff to the Premier 
Mark Lawson, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Premier 
Karl Baldauf, Chief of Staff to the President of the Treasury Board 
Leif Malling, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health 

Notice of Membership Meeting – Updated Agenda

Wednesday May 20, 2020

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Sign in on Zoom
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Meeting

Please note that we have taken the steps to have our General Membership Meetings streamed virtually in light of the circumstances within our Province. To connect to the meeting virtually, you will be emailed a link to Zoom.

Agenda:

1. Acknowledgment of Indigenous territory

2. Roll call of officers

3. Reading of the Equality Statement

4. Voting on new members and initiation

5. Reading of the minutes

6. Matters arising from the minutes

7. Secretary-Treasurer’s Report

8. Communications and bills

9. Executive Board Report

10. Reports of committees and delegates

11. Nominations, elections, or installations

· Special Committee as per By-Laws: Negotiating Committees

· 8 Permanent Committees as per By-Laws:

• Health & Safety Committee
• Bylaw Committee
• Social Committee
• RPN Committee
• Trades Committee
• LTC Committee
• Support Services Committee
• Clerical Committee

12. Unfinished business

· Publishing Minutes online/email

13. New business

14. Good of the Union

15. Adjournment

Day of Action Thursday, May 14, 2020
As many of you are aware, the government has unfairly announced that not all healthcare workers will be getting the pandemic pay promised on April 24, 2020. All Ontario Hospitals within OCHU/CUPE are planning a day of action tomorrow May 14, 2020 at shift change to demand equal pay for equal work.
Please come and join us at any of the 3 main sites within Unity Health Toronto:
Providence Healthcare  2pm-4pm join us on St. Claire Avenue near the bus stop outside of Hospital
St. Joseph’s Healthcentre  2pm-4pm join us on the Queensway in front of the Hospital
St. Michael’s Hospital  2pm-4pm join us at the corner of Shuter and Victoria outside the Hospital
We have Poster boards prepared with the hashtags for this campaign and the different classifications that have not been included in the pandemic pay. We have also come to learn that there are changes planned for the Directive #5 by watering down use of N95 masks, which currently protects ALL healthcare workers. 
Both of these changes affect us all and we hope that you will join us in our campaign to convince the Government that we are being unfairly treated. Our Employer Unity Health Toronto, wants to pay every worker the pandemic pay and are working with the Ontario Hospital Association to support us.
We hope that this day of action will make a difference and look forward to your support.
Please use the following video to share on social media and get the word out about the unfair treatment of all healthcare workers:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1745_3M2k0mKeXraYXp7MBKIx5n4rs0su/view?usp=drivesdk

savelivesn95s drive.google.com

Please use the following hashtags along with any classification that is not included: #fairness4healthcare #savelivesn95s
Together we are stronger, never forget, this is the new us! 
CUPE 5441

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1745_3M2k0mKeXraYXp7MBKIx5n4rs0su/view?usp=drivesdk

Notice of Membership Meeting

Wednesday May 20, 2020

3:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Please note that we have taken the steps to have our General Membership Meetings streamed virtually in light of the circumstances within our Province. To connect to the meeting virtually, you will be emailed a link to Zoom.

Agenda:

1. Acknowledgment of Indigenous territory

2. Roll call of officers

3. Reading of the Equality Statement

4. Voting on new members and initiation

5. Reading of the minutes

6. Matters arising from the minutes

7. Secretary-Treasurer’s Report

8. Communications and bills

9. Executive Board Report

10. Reports of committees and delegates

11. Nominations, elections, or installations

· Special Committee as per By-Laws: Negotiating Committees

· 8 Permanent Committees as per By-Laws:

• Health & Safety Committee
• Bylaw Committee
• Social Committee
• RPN Committee
• Trades Committee
• LTC Committee
• Support Services Committee
• Clerical Committee

12. Unfinished business

· Publishing Minutes online/email

13. New business

14. Good of the Union

15. AdjournmentDC

Nurses Week Celebration for Everyone! 

Good day everyone!

Apologies for the late notice – Local 5441 is looking forward to celebrating Nursing Week at PHC Friday May 15, 2020!

As a huge thank you to our RPNs, along with all of our members working during these difficult times, we want to take a moment to express our appreciation.

ALL CUPE Members are invited to celebrate by enjoying a free coffee/tea and a muffin at the Cafeteria 8:30am-10:30am & Tim Horton’s 2:30pm-4:30pm. To enjoy this treat simply inform them that you are a CUPE member. In this way we hope you enjoy a small token of our appreciation to each of you at the Providence Healthcare Site.

Please note, that the other sites will have a similar celebration on a separate day, Friday is site specific to PHC only.

Thank you all and be safe
CUPE Local 5441

Nurses Week Celebration for Everyone! 

Good day everyone!

Apologies for the late notice – Local 5441 is looking forward to celebrating Nursing Week at SMH on Friday May 15, 2020!

As a huge thank you to our RPNs, along with all of our members working during these difficult times, we want to take a moment to express our appreciation.

ALL CUPE Members are invited to celebrate by enjoying a free coffee/tea and a muffin in the Marketeria ALL DAY. To redeem, please use your voucher that will be handed out to everyone tomorrow. In this way we hope you enjoy a small token of our appreciation to each of you at the St. Michael’s Hospital. 

Please note, that the other sites will have a similar celebration on a separate day, Friday is site specific to SMH only.

Thank you all and be safe.

CUPE Local 5441

Nurses Week Celebration for Everyone!

Good day everyone!

Apologies for the late notice – Local 5441 is looking forward to celebrating Nursing Week at SJHC today!

As a huge thank you to our RPNs, along with all of our members working during these difficult times, we want to take a moment to express our appreciation.

ALL CUPE Members are invited to celebrate by enjoying a free coffee/tea and a sweet treat at the Cafeteria. To redeem, please when you cash out simply inform them that you are a CUPE member. In this way we hope you enjoy a small token of our appreciation to each of you at the St. Joseph’s Health Centre Site.

Please note, that the other sites will have a similar celebration on a separate day, today is site specific to SJHC only.

Thank you all and be safe,

CUPE Local 5441

St. Joseph’s Office: (416) 530-6692 | Fax: (416) 530-6061|General Email: Office.Cupe@unityhealth.to