'We want results': Urgences-sante support staff to strike next week
Urgences-santé support staff are expected to launch a fixed-term administrative strike next week over stalled contract negotiations and a shrinking workforce.
The union, which represents mechanics, repair technicians and other support staff, is likely to strike from July 18 to 19. The strike is not expected to affect public services.
The union hopes to pressure the government to move more quickly on contract negotiations, which have become hitched on higher salary demands. Without a salary boost, the union says it won't be able to retain staff.
Of the 120 support employees at Urgences-santé, "45 people have left their jobs," in the last year, according to support worker union president Marc Dulude, who says staff have been without a collective agreement since 2020.
He says certain "emergency" staffing measures have been put in place, but that they are only Band-Aid solutions.
"We have hired paramedic students during the summer to come and help us," he said, "but they're going to return to school in September, so we're going to have a staffing problem again."
In June, the union voted 96 per cent in favour of 10 banked striking days, meaning more strikes could follow.
“Ultimately, the lack of support staff at Urgences-santé jeopardizes the ability to provide quality pre-hospital services to the population," Dulude said at the time in a release announcing the vote.
"After more than two years after the expiry of our agreement, we cannot say that we have not shown patience," he said. "Now, we want results."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
What happens after we die? Most Canadians say an afterlife does exist, survey shows
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.