Media Advisory - OPSEU/SEFPO Canadian Blood Services Workers to Rally Alongside Labour and Community Allies Outside For-Profit Plasma Donation Centre in Whitby
WHITBY, ON, Feb. 28, 2025 /CNW/ - OPSEU/SEFPO members working at Canadian Blood Services (CBS) will be holding a rally outside Grifols for-profit plasma donation centre in Whitby on Monday, March 3 from 1-3pm. The CBS workers will be joined by fellow OPSEU/SEFPO members, labour and community allies.
The rally is to protest the opening of the centre, which will be collecting blood 'donations' for payment, and the unethical move by Canadian Blood Services (CBS) to quietly privatize Ontario's blood donation system.
This is the first in a number of paid plasma centres being opened in Ontario after Canadian Blood Services (CBS) signed a 15-year agreement with private pharmaceutical company Grifols. Paid plasma collection is banned in Ontario; however, the legislation contains an exemption for CBS or its agents – a legal loophole which CBS is taking advantage of to circumvent the ban.
Details of the rally are as follows:
When: Monday, March 3, 1-3PM EST
Where: 1801 Dundas Street East, Whitby – Grifols Donation Centre
Who: Speakers will include JP Hornick, OPSEU/SEFPO President; Sarah Labelle, OPSEU/SEFPO Region 3 Regional Vice President; Geoff Cain, Chair of OPSEU/SEFPO Sector 19 Blood Services and Diagnostics; Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition; Erin Ariss, Ontario Nurses Association President; and Michael Hurley, The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions President (OCHU-CUPE).
SOURCE Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO)
Media Contact: Samantha Webber- Gallagher, OPSEU/SEFPO Communications Officer, [email protected], 519-372-5776
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