Interruption disruption

At a recent rally outside the Toronto hotel where the Annual General Meeting of the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) was taking place, Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) members, members of the ONA Board of Directors and staff demanded that CEOs of for-profit nursing homes, who have been raking in millions for far too long, put resident care before profits, and reinvest in staffing ratios and fair wages in the upcoming round of nursing home bargaining. Read more here.

But the group wasn’t about to confine that critical message to just the outside of the hotel when so many of those CEOs were inside.

And so, led by ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, a contingent sneaked into the hotel and right to the meeting space, fiercely held their massive banners at the front of the room and continued to loudly chant. Meeting delegates looked stunned and uncomfortable to be confronted with the realities of work on the front lines.

When security was called, members left the room, but not exactly quietly. They continued to powerfully shout our key messages the entire way out of the building!

“This protest is just another example of what our fiery and fed-up members are willing to do to ensure we’re heard,” says Ariss. “We’re not going to sit quietly in the background while we’re stomped all over. We’re now front and centre – and we won’t back down ever. Employers and the Ford government, you have been warned!”

Take a look at how they successfully crashed the meeting here: