Blog Posts

LONGEST PICKET LINE EVER!!! We are providing you lunch as we picket on Monday, July 9, 2018 from Noon – 2 pm in support of the Women of the Port Arthur Health Centre . This picket line has to get long, very long. We can not give up fighting for these women. We will come face to face that day with the Doctors and scabs who are causing our women great distress. To date, the administration have not contacted Unifor to start a fair negotiation. You can also picket any other time that day or any day before the Longest Picket Line Ever Event. Placards are in the strike trailer.Just ask one of the gals on the site. Please invite your friends and family and coworkers to join us for a picketing lunch date.

location –
Port Arthur Health Centre
194 Court St N, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7A 4V7

thanks to all who came and got their “world famous” butter tart and coffee

 

 

There are 65 women on strike in Thunder Bay at Port Arthur Health Centre and this short video tells their story. It is yet again, another reminder of pay inequality and precarious contract work that women workers face. We need active intervention and solidarity to tell the Port Arthur Health Centre – enough is enough. Email the Centre’s CEO at jmarrello@paclinic.com or call 807-346-6254 and ask the employer to get back to bargaining and make a fair offer. #ISupportFairWorkPAHC

Il y a 65 femmes en grève à Thunder Bay au Centre de santé Port Arthur, et cette courte vidéo raconte leur histoire. Cette situation nous rappelle encore l’inégalité salariale et les contrats de travail précaires que connaissent ces travailleuses. Nous avons besoin d’une intervention vigoureuse et d’exprimer notre solidarité pour dire au Centre de santé Port Arthur : ça suffit! Écrivez un courriel au PDG du Centre à jmarrello@paclinic.com ou téléphonez au 807-346-6254, et demandez à l’employeur de revenir négocier et de faire une offre équitable. #JappuieEmploiDécentCSPA

Why has the Port Arthur Health Centre forced 65 women
workers out on strike?

• Only 22 out of 65 workers are permanent full time, the rest of the workers,
some with 15 years of service are still casuals.
• Lowest paid health clinic staff in Thunder Bay and in all of Ontario
• Patients are being bullied into attending appointments and some doctors are
illegally billing patients for missed appointments
• PAHC is one of the oldest and biggest private for-profit health clinics in
Thunder Bay
• No new offer, there has been no offer by the employer who forced them out
on strike on April 9, 2018
• Your doctor and every doctor in the Port Arthur Health Centre is an owner,
therefore they are responsible for the low wages and poor working
conditions of these women
• When you cross the picket line, the doctor gets paid
• The doctors have hired scab or replacement workers to do this work
• Your private and confidential medical records are being left on counters or
the names of all patients are posted publicly on the wall of the clinic
• Who is sterilizing the instruments and machines your doctor is using?

What are you doing to support the women who have been providing support to
you and your family? Please call or email your MPP and ask them to help stop
the strike at the numbers listed below.
Thunder Bay-Atikokan- MPP Bill Mauro
bmauro.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org 807-623-9237

Thunder Bay Superior North- MPP Michael Gravelle
mgravelle.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org 807-345-3647

Call John Marrello the manager of Port Arthur Health Centre
jmarrello@paclinic.com 807-346-6254

Call the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons
1-800-268-7096

Our sisters on strike at the Port Arthur Health Centre
need some support, if you are a worker or a union
member, please come out and support our sisters.
Joins us for a rally on
Thursday May 10, 2018 from 4:30 pm-6:30 pm
at the Port Arthur Health Centre on the corner
of Court and River Street. Parking is available at
Our Saviors Church on the corner of River and
Ferrand Street.

Key issues include
• violence on the picket line toward our strikers
• scab workers crossing the picket line to work everyday
• doctors and clinic management are spreading rumours and fake news
• this is a private-for-profit doctor owned clinic now charging and
bullying patients to not cancel their appointments
• there has been no new offer since prior to when the workers
were forced out on strike on April 9, 2018

RE: Strike support for Sisters at Port Arthur Health Centre

As I am sure you are aware the Unifor Local 229 workers from Port Arthur Health Centre have been on strike since Monday April 9, 2018.
Our Unifor Sisters work as Medical Aides, Medical Records, Medical Secretaries and Medical Billing Clerks. There are 65 women working here some with 37 years of service. Of the 65 all women working here only 22 are full time permanent staff with only 16 of these women getting benefits. All the other Sisters working at the PAHC are casual workers with no benefits, no permanent part time or full-time employment, no job security and no guarantee or scheduled hours of work. Most casuals are working full-time hours, some for 15 years! These Sisters are making just over minimum wage and the working conditions are horrendous. There is no respect from the management team for the work these women do.

Everyday there are scabs crossing the picket line to work for the doctors at the clinic. Our Sisters are afraid and intimidated on the picket line. The most important thing to our Sisters is that the patients accessing their doctors continue to do so if they need to. The doctors and management team at the PAHC have taken advantage of our Sisters and continue to bully and intimidate them. Prior to us going on strike the management team ordered a final vote offer and have so far refused to come back to the bargaining table.

Our Sisters at the PAHC need support. None of these sisters has ever been on a picket line or even a rally. Most of our Sisters are either old enough to retire but cannot because none of them have a pension or benefits, or they are young single moms. The way they are being treated is repulsive. Our Sisters need financial support, in the form of donations. We would like to purchase grocery and gas cards for all our sisters on the picket line. If any Local Union or business would like to offer a meal on the line or any other donation, it would be very much appreciated. They also need physical and spiritual support on the picket lines. We picket from 7:30 am – 6:00 pm Monday to Friday and 10:00 am – 1:00 pm Saturday and Sunday. The last ask is that you and your members, friends and families please call the numbers below and demand the employer come to the bargaining and give these women a fair agreement.

807-346-6217 phone, 807-346-1000 phone, Fax number 807-346-6251 and email at jmarrello@paclinic.com. We ask that you all call, email and fax all these contacts continuously until we get back to the bargaining table.

Kari Jefford President Unifor Local 229
You can send all financial donations to
Unifor Local 229
101-106 North Cumberland Street, Thunder Bay, ON P7A 4M2
Phone 807-474-4229

There are a number of ways you can show your support for our striking sisters at PAHC:

Send messages of support.
Walk the picket line with them.
Bring them food, coffee, doughnuts.
Call or email to get back to the bargaining table.
Contact your rep if you are being asked to do work usually done by the striking workers.

Welcome to the new and improved COPE 96 website!

The new website design brings a more polished look to our site and makes your mobile experience more enjoyable.

Visit the Calendar page to see a calendar of upcoming events. You can even “subscribe” and have our events automatically show up on your calendar!

We’ll post upcoming and last minute news and events on our Blog Posts page were our Home page will display static items we always want to be a focus.

The Memories page is were we’ll post fun pictures of COPE events.

Your feedback is always appreciated;
– email us at cope96@tbaytel.net or
– use the Contact Us page

COPE Ontario will be holding a Northern Summit “Building Bridges to the North“ in Thunder Bay on Saturday, September 16 and Sunday, September 17, 2017 at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Deadline for registration is September 1, 2017