CUPE Local 2247

09/23/2026

Even as more patients require hospital services every year, the North Bay hospital is considering more staffing cuts due to a $14 million budget shortfall (the provincial government is refusing to cover the full operational costs).

The hospital already went through a round of cuts last year.

From the perspective of frontline staff, made up of nurses, PSWs, rehabilitation assistants, pharmacy technicians, and many other patient-facing positions, who are stretched to their limits, there is absolutely no room to eliminate more positions. Patient care is being compromised.

And yet the government continues to find more money for private clinics at the expense of our public hospitals.

09/18/2026

💚💚

This week we celebrated Environmental Services Week and the amazing team that keeps CMH clean, safe and ready for care every single day.

It’s important work, it makes a difference, and we’re lucky to have such a great team doing it.

09/10/2026

09/09/2026

Please join if you can!

09/04/2026

05/19/2026

A big thank you to all the personal support workers who play a vital role in supporting our health care system. But PSWs deserve more than just gratitude — they deserve fair compensation, good working conditions, and respect.

On May 19, the official PSW Day in Ontario, CUPE is organizing a rally demanding the government fix the regulatory authority (HSCPOA) for PSWs to ensure they have the rights and protections accorded to other registered staff such as nurses.

Please take a moment to send a message to the Premier and the Health Minister to support PSWs: https://cupe.on.ca/hscpoa/

05/11/2026

Today at Queen's Park, OCHU-CUPE and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released a new report on Ontario's hospital funding crisis.

CCPA senior researcher Andrew Longhurst says that rising hospital costs of 6% annually and government underfunding are creating a toxic situation that undermines the goal of offering timely access to care for patients.

The main findings of the report:
● Smaller and rural hospitals are the hardest hit:
- Smaller hospitals made up 61 per cent of the hospitals in deficit but comprised only 49 per cent of all Ontario hospitals

● Hospital funding austerity harms patient care, which is visible in elevated wait times for 90 per cent of patients:
- Wait times for emergency department assessment increased by 67 per cent between 2020 and 2025.
- Over the same period, the number of hours that emergency department patients spent waiting for admission into hospital increased by 52 per cent.

The full report is available here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/failure-by-design-ontarios-deepening-hospital-funding-crisis/

05/05/2026

Tomorrow, CUPE 1943 is serving free coffee and muffins at the Peterborough hospital in appreciation of the cafeteria workers.

We have billed this as "cruelty-free" coffee because the staff who work tirelessly at the Tim Hortons/cafeteria are treated extremely poorly.

Although they work at the Peterborough hospital, their jobs have been farmed out to Compass, a for-profit corporation.

The work is chaotic and demanding – workers suffer from perpetual understaffing, and lax health and safety standards (with several reporting injuries).

“About 70 per cent of the time, I can’t take my lunch break on time because we are so short-staffed," says Pam Simpson.* “I often end up working an additional 45 minutes to an hour. And yet, I’ve been yelled at for requesting a lunch break – in front of customers!”

The frenetic pace of work has contributed to injuries as workers scramble to perform their duties, only for managers to minimize their concerns (“it doesn’t look too bad” one worker was told after a fall that tore off a chunk of skin off her scalp).

Many workers have decided the pain is not worth it for minimum wage (or a fraction more – the highest paid workers get $18.09).
Ergo, staff turnover is high, and experienced workers are under pressure to pick up the slack.

The toxic nature of the workplace is rooted in sexism, racism, and classism – most workers are women, many racialized, and some are international students with precarious immigration status.

CUPE 1943 wants significant improvements to bring them up to the same standards as the hospital workers it represents inside the facility.

After all, the Tim Hortons/cafeteria jobs are no different than those of food service workers at the hospital – in fact they used to have the same contract before the cafeteria jobs were privatized more than a decade ago.

“These workers here deserve fair compensation,” says Lisa Barker, the president of CUPE 1943. “But they also deserve respect and decent working conditions, free from harassment and discrimination. It’s incumbent on Compass and the Peterborough hospital to end these hyper-exploitative practices and treat them fairly.”

Please support these workers by signing our e-action/online petition: https://cupe.ca/peterborough and sharing this post!

*Name has been changed to protect workers' identities