The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

st the tribune thursday may 14 1998 pi 3 health woa- 62i 7 7 7 road to nurse deal long arid difficult lill wizi firewor your year round fireworks specialist from page 9 h cent rollback of wages and benefits she said adding many nurses who have received pinkslips are seeking work outside the province a 203per cent rollback isnt going to attract nurses back to the profession but the road to the deal was long and difficult we started the negotiating process back in april 1996 and we were in the situation where we had agreed to go to arbitration with the oha and along came bill 136 said mitchell explain ing that allowed either party to approach the labour board and ask for immediate arbitration t the two groups arrived at arbitration together when a deal couldnt be reached at that point former judge lloyd hbulden was appointed to the proceedings bill 136 governs all public service employee groups and requires that all contracts be arrived at based on afford- ability and taxpayer ability to pay working under the bill was quite an expedited process said mitchell of the three york region hospitals only nurses at york county are mem bers of the centralized bargaining unit of ona the union representing 40000 rns across the province about 414 full time and parttime nurses at york county will benefit from the new contract however nurses at york central and markhamstouffville hospital will likely benefit from the deal as those hospitals usually keep pace with salary adjustments made as a result of a new contract hospital administrators had been planning for a wage increase and say the deal is manageable york county vicepresident pat nor man says a 2per cent wage increase was factored in when forming this years operating plan we planned for it in the budget we knew it would be inevitable as every body was at the arbitration stage nor man said adding the union represent ing the hospitals service and clerical workers are also working without a contract mitchell says with more money pro vided to doctors in the last year and salary increases for the majority of hospital administrators over the last few years the nurses couldnt be rejected in their bid for a wage hike its only treating nurses fairly lets look at whats happening across the healthcare sector with the delisting of services by oh ip doctors are now billing directly for many services and subsidizing their income on the backs of the public said mitchell who believes the oha realized it had to provide the ability to attract new peo ple to the profession obviously there is the ability to pay and whenyou take into account all the administrators getting significant pay increases theyve done an environ mental scan and what theyre hearing from hospitals is there are no emer gency or critical care nurses they cant get them said mitchell however the twoyear deal covered the period from april 1 1996 to march 1 1998 which means bargaining a new contract will begin almost imme diately v even with announcements made last week recommending the creation of 7900 new nursing jobs to serve 20000 new nursing home beds mitcherfays ona isnt overly optimistic about the future in fact she predicts there will be a further loss of frontline heahhcare workers as hospital restructuring con tinues were only at the beginning of restructuring we would like to know when those hew nursing positions will be created they may be five years down the line she said yes we can reopen beds but doing it means hav ing the people at the bedside to provide care yet this is the government who reduced nursing care hours in nursing homes again for the 1 4th year choose from hundreds of the best fireworks available in canada 9c0 aff ff from around the world fafl at discounted mcesi 69 0 vi i oil exclusive wizard assortments complete with description of effects and suggested firing order up to 50 off other infrailer specials the tractor trailer in the parking lots of agincourt mall kennedysheppard markville mall mccowanhwy 7 enter off of hwy 7 trailer opens friday may 15 119 pickering canadian tire store hwy 2 liverpool rd trailer opens friday may 15 119 largest selection best prices wizard fireworks 9055094864 hours thursday may 14 friday may 15 saturday may 16 sunday may 17 monday may 18 129 119 96 106 108 yellow pages grand opening weekend may 1618 kates garden g ques rden tools sories markhams newest specialty store catering to the soul of the gardener we have hundreds of unique practical products to help you accent your garden and your property arblipisigned in canada decorative pots itainerj pdmfa urnlfialuring tnejesf collection delightful garden igue garden- stafionaand interior decor cipwnby canwian artist noble grand opening features instore specials food sampling and garden chat this long weekend at kates garden drop in victoria weekend hours sat 9306pm sun 125pm mon 125pm winners plaza 5221 mccowan road at highway 7 9054757674 r