They banned nurses from striking in 1965

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Well, well, well. I definitely didn't see this coming. On Nursing Week day one, the Ontario Nurses Association dropped this. I had an amazing little chuckle to myself. Not because it's funny, but because it's about damn time.

[00:00:13]Did you know that as a nurse in Ontario, we are legally banned from going on strike? But that might change, and that would be a big deal not just in Ontario, but all across Canada.

[00:00:24]So, there's a law called the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act, and it's been in the books since 1965.

[00:00:30]That's before the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms even existed. This law bans nurses and healthcare workers in Ontario hospitals and long-term care homes from taking any form of job action. And you know, when people can take job action, what that actually means for, you know, people are doing things that aren't right. Not to mention that something like over 90% of healthcare workers in this province, no strike, no work to rule, no lockout, no nothing. Well, on Monday, the Ontario Nurses Association just announced an historic constitutional challenge to strike this law down. And as a nurse, I cannot overstate how significant this is. Right now, when our contracts expire and we can't agree on terms, it goes to binding arbitration, meaning a third party decides how our working conditions are for us. The Ontario Hospital Association hasn't negotiated a freely settled contract with hospital nurses in over 15 years. They just waited out and let the arbitrator decide. And last year, an arbitrator imposed a new contract that completely ignored the number one demand of over 60,000 nurses in relation to mandatory minimum nurse patient ratios.

[00:01:35]Who's that in favor for? Not for patients, I can tell you that. And again, this only hurts the patient. When we're asking for things like this, it's not because we're trying to be greedy or we're trying to make our jobs easier.

[00:01:45]We're actually talking about patient safety and patient lives at this moment.

[00:01:49]We've been asking for this for years in a system that's supposed to be just neutral, just said no. So, in most of Canada and most of the world, nurses have some right to strike while maintaining essential care. Ontario is an outlier. We are one of the most restricted health care labor forces in the world.

[00:02:05]So, now what happens? We're taking this to court arguing that the HLDAA violates the Charter of our constitutional right to meaningful collective bargaining.

[00:02:14]This could change everything for nurses, for patients, and for the future of public health care in Ontario and across Canada. I'll be watching very closely and I'll be sharing updates cuz I'm telling you anybody out there got your back, it's definitely nurses.

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