Published May 27, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 13\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 3 minute read<\/p>\n
![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/webpicketers.jpg\")
Members of the OPSEU Local 276 Owen Sound Family Health Team unit picket in front of Owen Sound City Hall on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, while on strike as part of OPSEU’s province wide Worth Fighting For protest in support of community and social services workers. Greg Cowan\/The Sun TimesArticle content<\/p>\n
Twenty members of the OPSEU Local 276 Owen Sound Family Health Team unit picketed on the 10th Street Bridge in Owen Sound on Wednesday as part of ongoing protests.<\/p>\n
Advertisement 2<\/p>\n
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Marcelina Salazar, who works in mental health at the Owen Sound Family Health Team, said those on the picket lines are primary care staff, including nurses, dietitians, medical administrators, psychotherapists, pharmacists and occupational therapists.<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Recommended Videos<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Salazar said the Interprofessional Primary Care Teams (IPCT) \u2014 a collaborative healthcare model that groups family doctors and nurse practitioners together with professionals like nurses, social workers, dietitians, and physiotherapists \u2014 deliver programs and services to the more than 34,000 patients of the Owen Sound Family Health Team (OSFHT), in conjunction with the two physician groups (Owen Sound Medical Associates and Georgian Bay Practice Associates) that operate under the same roof.<\/p>\n
Salazar said that some of the services affected by the strike include palliative care services and navigation; enhanced supports for frail elderly; memory care including specialized clinics and memory testing; smoking cessation; cancer screening; diabetic foot care; mental health counselling, which is one of the only no-fee individualized counselling services in Owen Sound; nutrition support for chronic diseases and eating disorders; pain management support; medication reviews after patients are discharged from hospital; fall prevention assessments and education; enhanced supports for medically complex and marginalized patients; the administrative, scheduling, phone and reception support of these services and primary care services; prenatal and new-born care for unattached patients.<\/p>\n
![\"opening](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/21.3.1\/websites\/images\/newsletters\/logo\/icon-owen-so-times.svg\"\/){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
Sun Times Extra<\/p>\n
Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Advertisement 3<\/p>\n
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ramifications are huge,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cBecause we work so closely with the two other physician organizations . . . a lot of the roles we do are supporting those physician offices as well. So even though administratively we\u2019re different, and they are not on strike, their services are being impacted . . . there\u2019s going to be trickle-down effects from the work stoppage for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Owen Sound picketers are among the nearly two dozen community organizations on strike as part of OPSEU\u2019s Worth Fighting For, which argues that chronic underfunding by the Ford government has left people falling through the cracks and families struggling to access support.<\/p>\n
The workers are also demanding retroactive pay for \u201cstolen wages by Premier Ford\u2019s unconstitutional Bill 124,\u201d which capped wage increases at one per cent during a time of skyrocketing cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinimum wage has gone up six times in the past five years, and ours hasn\u2019t, and recently we lost about six employees because of that poor wage, because the wages are more competitive in other roles or with other organizations,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cStaff retention is definitely one of the ways in which we\u2019re seeing (the effect of the wage cap) at our own family health team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement 4<\/p>\n
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Salazar said one of the nurses on the picket line in Owen Sound, a mother of three, needed to make use of the Christmas hamper program this year.<\/p>\n
Salazar said the work of Local 276\u2019s three nurse navigators is crucial to the provincial government\u2019s goal of connecting every person in the province to a primary care provider by 2029, a goal that was rolled out with a $3.4 billion primary care action plan earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey help bridge the gap in services, they help avoid duplication in services, and perhaps most importantly, they give doctors more availability to take on more patients from that healthcare connect list and become attached, because the nurses have a lot more time to conduct complex initial intakes,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cThey have more time to give to patients who have complex medical histories and who need more coordination and prioritization of care.\u201d<\/p>\n
OPSEU Local 276 went on strike Monday alongside Local 325 Community Living Hanover and thousands of OPSEU workers who walked off the job this week in what they say is \u201ca fight for the future of the services they provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salazar said the Owen Sound picketers will be outside MPP Paul Vickers\u2019 office later this week, and they hope the work stoppage leads to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not benefit from going on strike. A strike is difficult emotionally, financially, and in the workplace when we return. It was a last resort,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cTo the people of Owen Sound, please show your support. Reach out to Doug Ford, reach out to Paul Vickers, and let them know how important our services are in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article content<\/p>\n
Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links NewsLocal News Published May 27, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 13\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 3 minute read…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-700890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}