Almost 400 Thunder Bay Community Living employees, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEPFO) Local 740, are heading back to work this week after 13 weeks on the picket line.
The union bargained with the provincial government to increase funding by 6.5 per cent for all the agencies involved in this campaign and came up short, but accepted a three-year contract with a three-per cent wage increase in each of those years.
“We will receive retroactive pay for the past year and a half because we’re a year and a half into the contract right now,” said Cindy Mazan, president of OPSEU/SEPFO Local 740. “We’re very disappointed in the wage increase because it doesn’t touch inflation. It actually puts us further behind other organizations that have higher wages than us.”
She added that the wage increases were based on their actual wages, and not a specific dollar amount and hoped for an increase of five per cent each year.
“This increases the gap between our lowest and our highest paid, and it also increases the gap between other developmental service workers across the province,” Mazan said.
With all things considered, Mazan said they’re guaranteed a three-per cent wage increase in their developmental services sector, as compared to averaging a 1.25-per cent increase over four years with their last contract.
“This is way better, but it’s still not good enough,” she said.
Meanwhile, almost 330 of the workers are expected to return to work this week as replacement workers leave. Mazan says the organization continues to work on its back-to-work plan for the workers, which she says they recognize is not an easy and quick process.
“They’ve never been on strike before, so we can respect the fact that it’s going to take a little while to get us back to work,” she said.
Upon return, employees may find changes. Mazan said they have learned that some employees who have returned to work have been transferred to different locations.
“We are not 100 per cent sure if there’s going to be downsizing, but the money has to come from somewhere to pay us,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it comes off the back of the unionized employees.”
Last Thursday, the union was notified that they could head back to the table, and within an hour, they were bargaining with a private mediator by the name of Jerry Lee.
“We had him for two and a half hours, to try and come to some sort of agreement because this was very last minute,” she said.
“By the end of the day (last Thursday), we had an agreement, but we finalized everything on Friday. We spent another eight hours bargaining on Friday, with wages being the big stickler.”
Mazan said that, along with wage increases, they received a slight increase to vacation time for both full- and part-time employees and a slight increase to a few other benefits.
“We also got a slight increase in lieu of benefits for our overnight staff who strictly work midnights,” she said.
