Management can't have it both ways. That was the message delivered at a Toronto news conference organized jointly by CUPE and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), calling on the Ontario Hospital Association to abandon its position on wage cuts.
"Senior hospital managers increased their salaries by an average of $15,000 over two years from 1995 to 1997. Hospital workers are asking for an average of $3,000 over a four and a half year period from 1995 to the year 2000," said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
To back up their demands, OCHU and SEIU presented information on executive salaries at various hospitals. In one example, the CEO of a Toronto hospital had seen his salary increase 15 per cent to $190,000 while a food service aide at the same hospital had received no increase on her $28,653 salary.
Following the news conference, information pickets were set up at 160 hospitals across the province.