The announced closure of the GM plant in Oshawa. The current provincial government’s recent action to replace Bill 148 – Fair Workplace, Better Jobs Act with Bill 47 – Making Ontario Open for Business Act.

The government stating that getting everyone a job is a good strategy for addressing poverty.

No matter where you look, jobs have been in the news a lot lately so it seems like a good time to talk about jobs in Peterborough and their link to your health and wellbeing.

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A rally against a wage freeze for clerical workers at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is planned for outside the hospital at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Hospital spokesperson Michelene Ough wrote in an email that 247 unionized workers recently had their jobs re-evaluated.

Of those, Ough wrote:

•33 will not see their wages change, as a result of the re-evaluation;

•168 will have their wages frozen for three years;

•46 will have their pay frozen beyond 2022 (it will be 2026 before they get a raise, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union has stated).

“While the change in the rate of pay is effective immediately for new hires, the hospital has provided until April 1, 2019 for existing employees to move into other clerical positions within the hospital – should they choose to do so – at their current rate of pay,” Ough writes.

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The Peterborough and District Labour Council will have a new president on Jan. 1.

Tyler Burns, a city bus driver and president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1320, was elected on Tuesday evening as incoming president of the Labour Council.

Marion Burton, who has been president for 12 years, didn’t seek re-election on Tuesday; she said in a phone interview immediately after the election that Burns will take over the role.

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A group of 244 unionized clerical workers at Peterborough Regional Health Centre will have their wages frozen for the next five to eight years after a re-evaluation of their jobs — a move that the union president calls “unconscionable” and has vowed to fight, while the hospital says the re-evaluation was long overdue and done “objectively”.

Warren “Smokey” Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said in a phone interview from Toronto on Tuesday that he doesn’t buy for a moment this idea that the job evaluations were impartially done.

“It’s just about one of the worst things I’ve seen an employer do,” he said, adding that “at the very minimum” the union will file grievances.

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City of Kawartha Lakes residents added their voices to one of the largest public rallies at Queen’s Park, opposing the Doug Ford government’s plans for the future of health care.

Bonnie Kennedy, co-chair of the Kawartha Lakes Health Care Coalition with Barbara Doyle and Zack Miller, said the local group decided to join other coalition chapters Tuesday (Oct. 23) afternoon following meetings led by the Ontario Health Coalition regarding the proposed merger of Ross Memorial Hospital and the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

“We decided we wanted to be more vocal about what is not only happening to health care in Ontario, but also our community hospital,” said Kennedy, adding the local group has also circulated a petition opposing the merger and is holding a Rally For Ross on Monday (Oct. 29) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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Premier Doug Ford’s government will freeze Ontario’s minimum wage at $14 for another two years with a sweeping new bill that scraps many of the labour reforms brought in by the previous Liberal government in favour of a more pro-business agenda.

The omnibus legislation, unveiled Tuesday, is designed to fulfil one of Ford’s central campaign promises, to make Ontario “open for business.” It will change several provincial laws, notably employment standards.

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TORONTO, ON (October 23, 2018) – Reducing wages and gutting protections for our provinces lowest paid workers proves Premier Ford is only interested in helping his corporate friends and has no problem hurting working people and their families to do it, says CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.

Hahn’s comments come following today’s announcement that Ford is not only cancelling the increase to minimum wage but is also reversing the legislation that reduced the ability of employers to exploit part-time, contract and temp agency workers. Ford is also cancelling the two paid sick days and fair notification of schedule changes for non-unionized workers.

“Scrapping protections for the most vulnerable and precarious workers in our province is not the actions of a government that is truly ‘for the people’. Today’s actions will hurt thousands of working people, hurt their families and it will ensure that Ontario’s economy only benefits those at the very top,” says Hahn. “All across Ontario, workers and their families are struggling. They used to have money at the end of week, now they have week at the end of the money. If the Premier really wants to protect workers, he will rethink his plan.”

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Diane Therrien became the second woman elected as Peterborough’s mayor in a stunning victory over incumbent Daryl Bennett Monday night.

Sylvia Sutherland was the first woman elected as mayor in 1986, while Aileen Holt was appointed the first female mayor of the city, replacing mayor Stan Mcbride Jr. in 1962 after he took on the role of Sheriff.

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