Health-care unions in Ontario say a newly-announced one-time retention incentive of up to $5,000 for nurses won’t fix the province’s worsening staffing shortage, instead calling it a ploy to gain votes ahead of the upcoming provincial election in June.
In a letter to premier Doug Ford, four unions — SEIU Healthcare, Unifor, the Ontario Nurses’ Association and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) — accused the incentive of being a “pay-as-you-vote gimmick” that fails to address bigger issues.
“While you’re promising up to [$5,000] for nurses, what they really want is the support to do their jobs well and to do them safely,” the unions wrote
