THUNDER BAY – “We want our 6.5 per cent that was stolen from us from Doug Ford.”
Erin Smith represents over 400 employees of Community Living Thunder Bay as a regional executive board member for the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU).
More than 100 support workers walked the picket line up on Monday morning in front of Community Living Thunder Bay’s John Street office.
Smith said they are sending a message to the Ford government.
“End the strikes and give us our 6.5 per cent,” she told Newswatch in an interview.
Currently, the median pay for a Community Living worker is $23 per hour, and while on strike, employees are losing $600 a paycheque,” said Smith.
Smith said support workers are unpaid and undervalued.
“I mean, you could go work at Tim Hortons and make more. And the fact that we do this job is because we care, it’s not because of the money. So last night when everyone was leaving (work), there was a lot of emotion. People were very upset,” she said.
“They don’t want to leave their clients, but they’re still standing up for themselves. And I couldn’t be more prouder of our local.”
Community Living is a publicly funded not-for-profit, and the striking employees were affected by the Ford government’s Bill 124, which capped public sector wage increases at one per cent per year for three years, starting in 2019.
The Community Living workers are part of a broader OPSEU labour action with more than 4,500 workers province-wide demanding retroactive pay from the province after a Superior Court judge ruled that Bill 124 violated collective bargaining rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
While many public sector workers have received retroactive wage increases since the legislation was repealed, community and social services workers are still waiting.
“Everyone else got it. We didn’t get it, and so here we are standing up for ourselves,” Smith said.
In a media release, Community Living Thunder Bay says the strike is affecting services and the organization is focused on supporting the people who rely on its services.
“Continuity plans are in place to maintain essential supports and minimize service disruptions wherever possible,” reads the release.
According to OPSEU Local 740 president, Cindy Mazan, Community Living Thunder Bay hired two private third-party contractors to take care of clients while the union strikes.
She said Nurse Next Door has been hired in Thunder Bay and the Superior Greenstone Association for Community Living in Geraldton.
“Supporting the people we serve continues to guide every decision we make,” Lisa Foster, executive director of Community Living Thunder Bay, is quoted as saying in the release.
She said the organization will maintain support, keeping clients informed and respect the bargaining process.
“On one hand, I understand, because … they need to take care of the people that are supported. On the other hand, I would much prefer that they were standing on the line with us and trying to push Doug forward to do the right thing. We need them to do the pushing just as much as we’re pushing because they’re able to make direct calls to the government,” Smith said.
Smith said discussions between OPSEU and the government are ongoing, but she did not have any more information as of Monday morning.
“They tell us that they fund this sector. They say they fund it really well, but we know they don’t,” Mazan said.
“We know the waitlist for autism services is 69,000. We know waitlists to get into developmental services. There’s 50,000 people on the waitlists, and Doug’s own watchdogs are telling them that they are underfunding this sector by a lot, by millions and billions of dollars.”
She said a strike was the union’s last option after a year of coordinated protest, with demonstrations in front of MPP Thunder Bay–Kevin Holland’s office and at Queen’s Park.
“The Ford government needs to know that we’re serious about this,” Mazan said, “and our members are worth fighting for.”
