BARGAINING

OPSEU HOSPITAL PROFESSSIONALS DIVISION
Public, Professional and Proud

FAIR RULES FOR BARGAINING

FACT SHEET FOR EMPLOYERS

  • Before each round of Central Bargaining, OPSEU and the Ontatario Hospital Association (OHA) negotiate a Memorandum of Conditions document that sets out the ground rules for the entire process of bargaining

  • The OHA wants OPSEU to agree to rules that say the parties cannot refer in arbitration to settlements achieved by OPSEU with non-participating hospitals. This would have the effect of gagging our team at arbitration.

  • OPSEU members in non-participating hospitals are not bound by these unfair rules.

  • Nurses bargaining through the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) are not bound by unfair rules of this kind. Why should the OHA expect OPSEU to agree?

  • We should be able to refer to relevant information at arbitration. A settlement achieved by OPSEU with a non-participating hospital is very relevant.

  • If unfair rules prevent us from making this comparison, the arbitrator will be unable to make an informed and balanced award. WHy would the OHA want an arbitrator to make an award without all the facts in hand? What are they trying to hide?

  • Central bargaining helps ensure consistent working conditions across the province. If there is no central agreement, staff turnover may increase as staff look for the best contract.

    • RESPONSE FROM RON SADDINGTON

    March 1,2002

    Dave Gibbons
    OPSEU Local President

    Dear Dave:
    I would like to take this opportunity to express the Hospital's continued commitment to the central bargaining process. The central bargaining process has resulted in settlements with ONA, SEIU and CUPE and the Hospital looks forward to a settlement with OPSEU.

    Thunder Bay Regional Hospital remains a strong supporter of the central bargaining process and simply wants central bargaining to proceed with OPSEU under the same ground rules as it has in the past. The central parties have used these same ground rules to reach settlements, without resorting to arbitration, in the last two rounds of central bargaining. There is no reason why these same ground rules will prevent the parties from reaching a reasonable and mutually argreeable settlement in this round.

    As a means of enabling central bargaining to "get back on track" the Hospitals' Negotiating Team has put forward reasonable alternatives to your Central Negotiating Team. One of the alternatives is using the CUPE/SEIU approach for OPSEU central bargaining in this round. The CUPE/SEIU approach would allow the parties to negotiate a central general wage increase and enable the local parties to bargain additional local wage adjustments. If the local parties are unable to reach a settlement on the wage adjustments then OPSEU could proceed to local interest arbitration and rely on settlements from participating and non-participating OPSEU hospitals.

    Given the importance of the issue I recommend that you encourage your Central Negotiating Team to return to the central bargaining table having reflected on the Hospital's interest in achieving a central settlement.

    Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    Ron Saddington
    President & CEO



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