they make that much and want more ?

[growler]

it seems the nurses that work for h/n health unit want there cake and be able to eat it to !

“Our final offer contains no reduction in benefits for current employees and includes wage and benefit improvements. Our offer does not include any changes to job security provisions. In addition, as part of the last collective bargaining agreement, ONA bargaining unit members received an increase of 1.5% on January 1, 2011; whereas, non-union employees received a 1% increase for 2011,” said a media release from Norfolk County.

The release also provided salary details. Currently, the top rate for nurse practitioners is $50.54 an hour or about $92,337 per year. The county's offer would see this rise to $51.66 per hour and $94,200 per year effective Jan. 1, 2014.

Public health nurses currently make $41.41 per hour ($75,656 a year). Under the county proposal this would increase to $42.25 per hour and $77,191 per year, effective Jan. 1, 2014. Casual rate for public health nurses is currently $47 per hour. That would increase to $47.95 under the county plan.

Registered nurses currently make $38.43 per hour of about $70,212 per year. That would increase to $39.20 per hour and $71,618 per year under the county offer. The casual rate for Rns is currently $43.62 and would increase to $44.49 under the county plan.

Proposed enhancements to the workers' benefits would also increase county costs by about $1,000 per month. The county currently pays $14,000 in monthly benefits costs for the workers in ONA Local 007.

The 32 nurses, who have been on strike since April 21.

The strike turned bitter on Friday when Norfolk County filed an application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board claiming the ONA was guilty of bad faith bargaining.


at least thats what it looks like !

[Spidubic]

The wife and my salary combined does not come close to what those nurses are making. Of course they claim the strike is not about the money.

[kishgo]

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SIMCOE - The 11-day strike by public health nurses in Haldimand-Norfolk is over.

Members of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Local 007, voted unanimously in favour of a new contract agreement Tuesday afternoon.

The new deal was hammered out in a marathon bargaining session that began Monday and finished Tuesday morning at 3 a.m.

Norfolk council approved the contract in a 5-2 vote during a special meeting at Governor Simcoe Square late Tuesday.

The affected nurses have been working without a contract for nearly a year.

The new deal is retroactive to last July and is set to expire July 31, 2014. It calls for a total wage increase over the life of the agreement of 2.95%.

There are also improvements in Local 007’s extended health, dental, long-term disability and group insurance.

New hires will be required to pay 20% of their benefit premiums as well as 60% of their benefits in the event of early retirement.

The 32 members of Local 007 will return to work Wednesday morning.

“We’re very pleased,” Melanie Holjak, a nurse at the health unit and a member of the bargaining team, said following the ratification vote at the public library in Jarvis. “We’re very happy we can return to work with a collective agreement that is fairly fair. We are hopeful we can return to a positive work environment.”

Simcoe Coun. Peter Black and Waterford Coun. Harold Sonnenberg were the two council members to vote against the agreement.

Black was holding out for a status-quo contract based on the fact that the economy is suffering and many taxpayers can’t pay their bills. With some of the bargaining unit employees earning more than $90,000 a year, Black says now is not the time for “an economic increase.”

“There was a time in this country when we used to take care of each other,” Black said. “There was a time in this country when we were prepared to die for each other. Now it’s just me, me, me.”

Sonnenberg was unwilling to support the deal because it grants the nurses two additional paid holidays a year. Some of these nurses, Sonnenberg said, enjoyed 30 paid holidays a year under the old contract.

“That’s what’s wrong with the world today,” Sonnenberg said. “We’re paying too many people not to work.”

Tensions rose between the two sides immediately after the nurses went on strike April 21.

Both sides accused the other of bargaining in bad faith and threatened to file charges at the Ontario Ministry of Labour. During the work stoppage, a noisy picket line in Simcoe slowed non-union staff and employees from getting to work at the health unit’s Gilbertson Drive headquarters.

The union accused management of trying to intimidate its members while the county hired professional security to “monitor” the strikers’ picket line behaviour.

Things got back on track Monday with the help of a senior mediator from the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

“There was a lot of back and forth and concessions back and forth. There were very spirited interactions through the mediator,” said county manager Keith Robicheau.

Both sides, Robicheau said, will make “every reasonable effort” to “reintegrate” the nurses with non-striking workers when they return to work.

“A strike like this . . . does lead to people becoming emotional,” he said.

“It is our sincere hope people will be able to put this behind them.”

A “protocol” for returning to work was part of Monday’s negotiations, Robicheau noted.

The picket line on Gilbertson Drive was suspended by Tuesday morning. Members of the bargaining team and the ONA board were there, however, to “thank” other health unit staff as they came to work “for their support over the past week”, said ONA first vice-president Vicki McKenna.

“A strike is very difficult for sure and all parties play a role in it,” McKenna said in a telephone interview. “Things get said and behaviours occur.”

She called for “mutual respect” from both sides. “That’s what we’ll be saying to our members . . . We’re all grown ups

[Spidubic]

Maybe they will get bumped into a higher tax bracket.

[growler]

maybe the county could raise their property taxes up to cover their wage increases.

i was self employed, put my kid's through college,(all on my dime),
paid off my home and equipment,
put a bit of money away and bought and paid for vacation property in florida, and never made even close to 90,000. per year, but now have to pay taxes to pay them that muck money ! !
is that fair ? ?

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