OPSEU Local 101 is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 scholarships:

 

Alaina Hannagan

Andrew Hebert

Audrey Mackay-Barr

Daniel Gidillini

Emma Nicholls

Hanna Jaglarz

Jonathan Grebe

Mathieu April

Sevana Rennert

Shaily Brahmbhatt

 

Congratulations!

 

The 2020 scholarship applicants were outstanding! This year we had 21 applicants. They all demonstrated a strong work ethic, community involvement, high level of achievement as well as exhibited commitment and determination towards their career goals. The application review process proved to be very difficult and after much deliberation the ten (10) recipients were selected.  We would like to recognize all the applicants at this time and wish everyone the best of luck in their upcoming academic year. We encourage applicants that may have not been chosen this year to reapply in the future. Only the selected recipients will be contacted.

-OPSEU Local 101 Scholarship Committee

Media coverage: Windsor Star video post

 

           

***June 11th update on letter writing

For all of those members sending letters to Premier Ford, Christine Elliott and Peter Bethlanfalvy:

There was some confusion about the envelopes. I was unfortunately NOT supplied with envelopes or postage. The intent was to suggest to send in coloured envelopes to grab the attention of the recipients. Any bright colour will do. I have actually used some left over Greeting Card envelopes for mine.  Thank you for participating in the continued attempt to lobby for Pandemic Pay on behalf of ALL Frontline Staff.

Stay safe and take care.

Susan

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Join us this week June 8 – 12  and send a letter to Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy. Tell them that they must change course on their decision about who receives and subsequently in our case doesn’t receive pandemic pay. They must remember about allied health professionals, the forgotten frontline.

 

Write your own personal message or feel free to use a pre-written letter below and if you’d like, speak with Susan, OPSEU local 101 president about getting a special coloured envelope to mail each of them. We need to continue to demand that they include all healthcare workers in the pandemic pay premiums.

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Ontario Premier’s Office

Legislative Building, Queens Park,

Toronto, ON

M7A 1A1

Dear Premier Ford,

Since first announcing pandemic pay for frontline health care professionals in late April, you have more than once stated your willingness to look into increasing the professions that will receive it and this is why I’m writing you today.

As a ___________________ at _______________________ I am a forgotten frontline health worker. Three months have passed with thousands of essential and hard-working allied health professionals, like myself, performing heroically over incredibly long hours, exhausted, risking my life, worrying about PPE, and still looking in from the outside. We need you to come through on your promise to provide us with the recognition we all deserve.

Myself and my colleagues face incredible division in our workplace. All of us provide direct patient care and are working alongside colleagues with similar risks who are deemed eligible for the premium. In fact, approximately one-third of the hospital workforce is excluded, the majority of whom are regulated health professionals that provide direct patient care. This situation undermines the morale of frontline staff in hospitals. There should be clear recognition that the response to the pandemic is a collective effort.

Providing all frontline healthcare workers with an increased level of financial security during what is nothing short of a very insecure time, will not only help morale, but increase the health of those who need focused and valued caretakers the most.

We look forward to you continuing to show the leadership Ontarians need during this incredibly stressful and dangerous time.

Sincerely,

Name:

Position:

Hospital:

---

Hon. Christine Elliott, Minister of Health   

Ministry of Health

5th Floor

777 Bay St.

Toronto, ON M7A 2J3

Dear Hon. Christine Elliott,

Since first announcing pandemic pay for frontline health care professionals in late April, you have more than once stated your willingness to look into increasing the professions that will receive it and this is why I’m writing you today.

As a ___________________ at _______________________ I am a forgotten frontline health worker. Three months have passed with thousands of essential and hard-working allied health professionals, like myself, performing heroically over incredibly long hours, exhausted, risking my life, worrying about PPE, and still looking in from the outside. We need you to come through on your promise to provide us with the recognition we all deserve.

Myself and my colleagues face incredible division in our workplace. All of us provide direct patient care and are working alongside colleagues with similar risks who are deemed eligible for the premium. In fact, approximately one-third of the hospital workforce is excluded, the majority of whom are regulated health professionals that provide direct patient care. This situation undermines the morale of frontline staff in hospitals. There should be clear recognition that the response to the pandemic is a collective effort.

Providing all frontline healthcare workers with an increased level of financial security during what is nothing short of a very insecure time, will not only help morale, but increase the health of those who need focused and valued caretakers the most.

We look forward to you continuing to show the leadership Ontarians need during this incredibly stressful and dangerous time.

Sincerely,

Name:

Position:

Hospital:

---

Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy

President of the Treasury Board

Treasury Board Secretariat
Whitney Block
99 Wellesley St. W, 4th Floor

Room 4320

Toronto, ON

M7A 1W3

Dear Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy,

Since first announcing pandemic pay for frontline health care professionals in late April, your government has more than once stated your willingness to look into increasing the professions that will receive it and this is why I’m writing you today.

As a ___________________ at _______________________ I am a forgotten frontline health worker. Three months have passed with thousands of essential and hard-working allied health professionals, like myself, performing heroically over incredibly long hours, exhausted, risking my life, worrying about PPE, and still looking in from the outside. We need you to come through on your promise to provide us with the recognition we all deserve.

Myself and my colleagues face incredible division in our workplace. All of us provide direct patient care and are working alongside colleagues with similar risks who are deemed eligible for the premium. In fact, approximately one-third of the hospital workforce is excluded, the majority of whom are regulated health professionals that provide direct patient care. This situation undermines the morale of frontline staff in hospitals. There should be clear recognition that the response to the pandemic is a collective effort.

Providing all frontline healthcare workers with an increased level of financial security during what is nothing short of a very insecure time, will not only help morale, but increase the health of those who need focused and valued caretakers the most.

We look forward to you continuing to show the leadership Ontarians need during this incredibly stressful and dangerous time.

Sincerely,

Name:

Position:

Hospital:

Join us Wednesday, June 10th from 11am to 2pm for a Twitter Storm!

Let’s storm the leaders of this provincial government with as many tweets as possible demanding they include all frontline healthcare workers in the pandemic pay premiums. Even if your profession is now included in the list of essential workers, stand beside your colleagues and advocate for all to be included. Together we stand strong!

• Login to your Twitter account/create an account in Twitter if you don’t already have one
• Create your own tweets or if you’re not sure what to tweet, just check out OPSEU’s main Twitter page (@OPSEU) and OPSEU 101’s Twitter page (@OPSEULocal101). You can retweet some of the pandemic pay tweets that will be posted before and during the event.
• Be sure to tag Doug Ford @fordnation, Christine Elliott @celliottability, and Peter Bethlenfalvy @PBethlenfalvy and add the hashtag #pandemicpay
• Tweet multiple times between 11am and 2pm so that their feeds and notifications get inundated with our message.

As always, we thank you for all your support, hard work and dedication during these trying times. Remember we are in this together.

Come out Thursday, June 11th at noon to join Team HDGH as they march together with labour partners and stand strong together! 

Meet at the Tayfour Canopy. 

Show unity around the inequities with Pandemic Pay #pandemicpay

Remember to wear a mask and respect social distancing. 

Demonstration will be a maximum of 30 minutes and must be done on the staff person’s lunch time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In light of the recent government decision

Concerning pandemic pay increases

ALL members of the WRH team are invited to participate in this show of solidarity in a walk around our campuses.

 

Let’s show our community that we are FRONTLINE PROUD and TOGETHER WE STAY STRONG during these challenging times.

 

Friday, June 5 – 12:30 pm

 

At Met Campus

Begin at the Lens entrance and head east

 

At Ouellette Campus

Begin at the Goyeau entrance,

head around the Jeanne Mance building and north down Ouellette Ave.

 

Join Us!

Wear your masks,

keep appropriatephysical distance..

Let’s march around our campuses!

 

Hope this email finds everyone still safe and healthy. As you know, the Ford Government announced a $4/hour pay increase for several weeks during the COVID Pandemic to “frontline workers”. Many of our OPSEU classifications have been overlooked. Everyone from OPSEU has been working diligently to get clarification and expansion of the list of workers that are eligible. For this fight we need everyone’s support.

A letter from the Chair of the Hospitals Division of OPSEU, Sara Labelle, was sent to the Premier, Doug Ford, requesting him and his administration to broaden the eligibility of the members initially excluded from the frontline list.

Below you will find email addresses and a sample letter. We ask that each and every one of our Members send their MPP an email to help push in this fight.

Please do this in solidarity of those who may not be on that list of frontline workers, but should be. Even if your classification is on the list, stand together and support your fellow Union Brother or Sister, who is working alongside you every day. 

In addition, if your profession is not on the frontline workers list, you may contact your professional association and request that they send a letter to the Premier and Health Minister advocating for your inclusion. 

As this is a timely issue, please write these letters as soon as possible! 

Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay together. Stay tuned for updates. 

 

In Solidarity,

Susan

 

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Click on the link below and enter your postal code to find your MPP and their email address:

https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/en/election/search?mode=postalCode

Send your letter to your MPP and Cc: Doug Ford, Premier, and Christine Elliott, Health Minister.

Premier Ford premier@ontario.ca

Minister Elliott Christine.elliott@pc.ola.org

 

Here is the OPSEU head office website with info on writing letters:

Pandemic pay for all frontline healthcare workers

 

Filing WSIB COVID-19 claims

 

The information below outlines how and when people should file claims related to COVID-19. While the nature of some people’s work may put them at greater risk of contracting the virus, for example those treating someone with COVID-19, any claims received by the WSIB will need to be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the facts and circumstances.

 

• If you contracted COVID-19 while at work (you have a diagnosis or symptoms of COVID-19), you may file a claim to determine if you are eligible for WSIB coverage. 

• If you believe you were exposed to COVID-19 while at work, but you are not ill at this time (you do not have a diagnosis or symptoms of COVID-19), please do not file a claim. Instead, you can file an exposure incident form through our Program for Exposure Incident Reporting (PEIR) or Construction Exposure Incident Reporting (CEIR) programs. These are voluntary reporting programs and you will be assigned an incident number. If you become ill in the future, we’ll be able to process your claim faster.

To report an exposure, please complete and fax the appropriate form below to 1-888-313-7373 or call the WSIB at 1-800-387-0750, Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

All industries (except construction): Worker’s Exposure Incident Form(PDF) or Employer’s Exposure Incident Form (PDF)

Construction sector: Worker’s Construction Exposure Incident Form(PDF) or Employer’s Construction Exposure Incident Form (PDF) 

For additional information, please visit the WSIB website.

 

In Solidarity

Susan