Hospital laundry workers to share stories of loss with Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault

Laundy workers with Sudbury Hospital Services are turning up the heat on Sudbury MPP GlennThibeault.

The 39 workers are due to lose their jobs in the new year.

CUPE local 2841 presidentGiseleDawson says workers wantThibeaultto know directly who they are and how the job losses will affect their families. They plan on sharing their stories with the MPP at his office on Friday.

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And they will have some pointed questions for him.

"One, why are we not making a shared service in the north? We'd like to speak to Mr. Glenn Thibeault about that," Dawson said.

"If this is what's happening, if this is the Ontario government that's pushing these cuts, then why are they not making a shared service in the north?"

Health Sciences North says it's less expensive to truck dirty linens to Mohawk Shared Services in Hamilton.

A hospital official previously told CBC News that Sudbury Hospital Services has large overhead costs that it's essentially been passing on to one customer. At one time the firm provided laundry services to all the hospitals in Greater Sudbury.But that need dwindled when three of them merged to form the Sudbury Regional Hospital in 2010.

Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeaultsays he can empathize with the workers' situation. But he says it's a decision that was made by the hospital alone, and the province didn't force its hand.

"You know, when they say I've done nothing, that's not entirely fair. I've done what I've tried and, you know, my staff even reached out to them. And I'll continue to advocate," he said.

"But, when you've got $500,000 in savings that we can put into our system to go right back into direct care ... and other hospitals are doing it ... North Bay ... all of the Sault ... everyone else is ... making sure that we can reduce costs. That's an important thing to do in our health care system."

The employees are expected to be laid off by March 31, 2017.