The Ontario Hospital Association and Ontario Nurses’ Association offered sharply different views Tuesday on an arbitration decision that sets contract terms for more than 60,000 hospital nurses across the province.
Arbitrator Sheri Price’s decision establishes a two-year contract retroactive to April 1, 2025, and expiring March 31, 2027. The ruling awarded wage increases of three per cent in 2025 and 2.25 per cent in 2026, according to both organizations.
Nurses’ union calls decision a betrayal
The nurses’ association condemned the arbitration outcome, with Provincial President Erin Ariss calling it “a betrayal of nurses, of working women, and the right to meaningful collective bargaining.”
Ariss said the decision “sets a new low in the history of bargaining for Ontario’s nurses” and criticized the wage increases as pushing hospital nurses further behind other workers. The union said the increases were based on comparisons to retail clerks and office workers.
The union’s primary concern was the rejection of minimum safe staffing ratios, which nurses had identified as their top priority. Ariss said this tells nurses “that the unchecked and brutal violence we face every day is acceptable, and our safety is not important.”
Hospital association defends staffing progress
The Ontario Hospital Association acknowledged the arbitration result but highlighted different staffing statistics. The organization said Ontario’s hospital workforce has grown by more than 40,000 health care workers since 2019-20, reaching over 280,000 total positions.
Hospitals have hired 7,500 more registered nurses over this period, with more than 71,000 nursing positions now filled across the province, according to the association.
The hospital group said registered nurses have received wage increases of 21.25 per cent over the past five years through previous arbitration decisions, bringing the average annual salary to $112,476. The association said the total cost of nursing wages across hospitals is $1.139 billion.
Financial concerns vs. worker safety
The hospital association said the arbitration award “fails to” reflect “the financial realities everyone faces today” and emphasized the need to manage public resources responsibly.
Kirk LeMessurier, the association’s chief of communications and public affairs, said hospitals need flexibility to use “innovation, partnerships and technology” and “multidisciplinary teams” to improve care.
The nurses’ union rejected these arguments, saying the decision ignores basic job protection and gives employers freedom to pursue mass layoffs in a province with the lowest number of registered nurses per capita.
History of failed negotiations
Both sides acknowledged a pattern of unsuccessful direct negotiations. The hospital association said it has negotiated multiple collective agreements with other major hospital unions over 15 years but has been unable to reach negotiated settlements with the nurses’ association.
Ariss said hospital employers and the provincial government have benefited from “more than 15 years of failed bargaining settled by arbitrators that serve the interests of employers, not nurses and working people.”
The nurses’ union said members will review the decision in coming days and consider next steps. “We are more organized than ever before, and we’re not backing down,” Ariss said.
The Ontario Hospital Association expressed hope that both parties “will be able to work together through the collective bargaining process to reach a negotiated agreement in future rounds.”
The Ontario Nurses’ Association represents over 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, plus 18,000 nursing student affiliates, according to the union.
