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Last truck out of Sudbury Hospital Services

Laundry workers gather as last load of linens heads to HSN

A few dozen Sudbury Hospital Services workers gathered for a rally outside of the laundry facility on March 25, as the last load of clean linens left the SHS plant Saturday afternoon.

The group of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) 2841 has rallied on a number of occasions in protest of Health Sciences North's plans to switch to a southern Ontario provider for its laundry services in a move that is projected to save the hospital $500,000 annually.

"It's been very emotional for us, knowing that we're sending our last loads of linen to HSN" said Gisele Dawson, president CUPE 2841.

"Almost six months ago we were told that we would no longer be servicing HSN, but we didn't take it sitting down and the community knows that. We raised our voices and everybody heard."

The move by HSN to switch laundry service providers to Mohawk Shared Services in Hamilton is one that is expected to cost 36 Sudburians their jobs at SHS. Cost-saving moves that results in job losses is something that is happening at hospitals around the province, according to Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who attended the rally.

"I know that this is just the first step, I can see it everywhere in Ontario. We have a minister of health (Eric Hoskins) who tells every hospital that if it is not acute hospital care, get rid of it to balance your budget," said Gélinas.

"The hospital went five years without an increase to their budget and during those five years hydro bills went up, drug costs went up, but their revenues didn't go up. They're stuck making dumb decisions. Saving $500,000 at this point is worth 40 jobs? I can't fathom that and I disagree with it. We have 152 hospitals in Ontario and it's happening at each and every one of them."

Health Sciences North has said that it intends to continue using SHS for its dish washing needs, a service that employs seven people.

Sudbury and District Labour Council president Jamie West also attended the rally on Saturday afternoon to show his support for SHS employees who will be losing more than jobs according to West, but losing careers.

"It's very frustrating to see these jobs taken out of our city, and the issue we have with politicians is that we talk about jobs and not careers," said West.

"What's important is that these are careers, these aren't jobs. You can find a job somewhere else, I know people with two or three jobs and they're still trying to figure out how to pay their rent. We need careers in this city."


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