Ontario nurses rally at St. Joe’s Hamilton over hospital budget cuts

More than 150 members of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) held a rally outside St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Thursday morning demanding care over budget cuts.

The rally had closed Charlton Avenue East between James and John streets, but it has since reopened.

The union representing around 68,000 health-care professionals is demanding that employers reverse their position cuts, and instead implement safe staffing levels and nurse-to-patient ratios.

“There’s been more than 1,300 registered nurse (RN) job cuts in just over a year and the Ford government continues to do this in every sector of health care,” said ONA provincial president Erin Ariss. “Hospitals, public health units, long-term care homes — pretty much everywhere, every setting, we’re seeing them cut RN jobs.”

Ariss says that morale among nurses currently working with patients is “absolutely abysmal” and that one nurse is often seen doing the work of three or four nurses.

“They’re working in dangerous conditions, they are facing burnout and challenges, injuries like we’ve never seen before,” said Ariss.

The rally comes after members of the local labour union CUPE 786 protested in front of the hospital last month over the elimination of around 60 job positions.

WATCH MORE: Job cuts at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton prompts union rally