Hospitals in the northeast are facing a cash crunch and tough decisions have to be made.

In most cases, that includes job cuts, which can create friction with staff and their unions.

Rallies were held by support staff Wednesday around northern Ontario. They were staged by members of the Canadian Union of Hospital Unions, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and the Service Employees International Union.

Recently in Sudbury, cuts were announced at Health Sciences North and the message outside the region's largest hospital was simple:

"What do we want?”

“Contracts!”

“When do we want them?”

“Now!”

The news of job and spending cuts at Sudbury’s hospital fanned the flames.

Dave Shelefontiuk is the President of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1623.

"We're a hospital. We're supposed to be clean. We're supposed to be fighting infections. We're supposed to be doing all this stuff. We've been hit through attrition for 10 years." said Shelefontiuk.

The cuts sent shockwaves all the way to Queen's Park, where Premier Wynne was forced to defend her record in the legislature.

France Gelinas is the NDP Nickel Belt MPP and current Health Critic.

"Doesn't this Premier get it? And why is she still underfunding northeastern hospitals?" said Gelinas.

"Over the past two years, we've actually increased funding to Health Sciences North by $10-million, so there's been a substantial increase in funding to this organization." said Wynne.

The new HSN budget trims 113 full-time jobs, slashes capital spending and cuts millions from non-clinical programs.

However, the North East Local Health Integration Network has put the brakes on that plan, at the government's request, as it conducts a third-party review.

Kate Fyfe is the VP of Performance and Accountability for North East LHIN.

"We want to do our due diligence and want to ensure that the changes, the magnitude of the changes, are in the best interest of the communities." said Fyfe.

That review isn't expected to wrap up until after the June 7th election and the proposed cuts at HSN have all the makings of a campaign issue for the Ontario Liberals.

Glenn Thibeault is the Liberal Sudbury MPP.

“If we can find ways to address the concerns and make sure that we can continue with the quality of services and the great jobs that we have in Sudbury, because our front line staff in Sudbury at HSN are second to none.” said Thibeault.

On the front lines, the CUPE Local 1623 President has a message for politicians.

"If Glenn Thibeault and Premier Wynne really want, you know, to settle some of this stuff, then fund the hospitals the way the proper funding is supposed to be." said Shelefontiuk.

The province has announced more than $800-million to help hospitals with day-to-day costs.

HSN says it's hoping for a piece of that, but it's still unclear whether an emergency funding boost could stave off any job cuts for now.