TORONTO – The Ontario Nurses’ Association says contract talks with the Ontario Hospital Association have broken down and will now head to arbitration in early May.
The nurses’ union started bargaining with the hospitals in late January and talks had entered mediation on Wednesday.
Bernie Robinson, the ONA’s interim president, says the union would have preferred to have reached a negotiated contract and called the latest round of negotiations “incredibly difficult and frustrating.”
The OHA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This will be the first contract for the nurses since being subject for three years to a wage restraint law known as Bill 124, which capped increases at one per cent a year.
An Ontario court found Bill 124 unconstitutional late last year, but the government has filed a notice of intent to appeal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2023.
