Thousands of union employees at hospitals across the province are showing up to work Wednesday wearing a sticker they hope will put pressure on Ontario hospitals to return to the bargaining table.
The sticker, which says "Together for Respect," will be worn by hospitals nurses, personal support workers, porters, dietary, administrative and trades staff with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), SEIU Healthcare and Unifor.
"In the case of CUPE, I think it's been 30 years since we've had a campaign which was bargaining focused [and] involved people mobilizing in the workplace," said Michael Hurley, president of Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
The three unions joined forces at the end of March in an effort to gain more power at the bargaining table against the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA).
In a statement sent to CBC News, a spokesperson for the OHA said the association was "disappointed" negotiations with the individual unions failed last year.
The statement also said the OHA is willing to reach a "fair and reasonable" agreement with staff.
Commercials, stickers and rallies
The unions represent 75,000 employees who are each working on an expired contract, according to Hurley.
"We're getting some pent-up frustration that's emerging here, which hasn't emerged in a long time," he said.
The combined unions kicked off a commercial campaign this week and are planning rallies later this month.
"People feel they have no option but to push hard," said Hurley, adding better wages and protections against violence in the workplace are priorities for members.
No legal right to strike
Hurley said without the legal right to strike, members are forced to continue working even though some employees have been without an agreement since September.
"We would like to put this bargaining behind us, but to date we've had a lot of resistance from the hospital in coming up to a standard which would be acceptable to our members," explained Hurley.
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The union president said he was hopeful the campaign and a potential mandate vote in May are enough to get OHA back to the bargaining table.
"We hope it will have the strength from our membership to be able to dislodge the hospitals from their current bargaining position and move them toward a negotiated collective agreement."
In its statement, the OHA indicated discussions with all three unions have been scheduled for April 21 and 22.