Community Living Tillsonburg could strike July 20; pickets active across region

July 20, 2007 The 120 staff at Community Living Tillsonburg will be on strike July 29 unless the McGuinty government produces the necessary funding increase.

More than 1,000 staff at Community Living London, Middlesex Community Living, Elgin Association for Community Living and Community Living Chatham-Kent have been on strike for four weeks. Several more agencies around the province are in a strike countdown as well, and more than a dozen other agencies across Ontario also have strong strike votes.

“We’re still hoping the Premier will come through, but we’re not optimistic,” said Nancy John, President of OPSEU Local 161, Tillsonburg. “The Premier told us in St. Thomas that he wanted us to resolve things at the table – we’ve tried that and it failed us.”

“Our members have worked without a contract since March 2006. No wage offer has been made for 2006 or 2007.”

Last night Local 161 met with family members in Tillsonburg: “We gave out 150 t-shirts, 25 large pizzas, and in return we got the support of the people we support and families as they wrote their comments to Dalton McGuinty. We have already started to receive donations! The families are awesome. This was very inspiring for our members,” John said.

“We want to settle this. Everyone agrees on the problem – it’s up to the government to fix it,” said John. “We don’t want to strike but may have to in order to get a fair wage for the work we do.”

Across the region

Meanwhile, members of Local 148, Community Living Chatham-Kent, picketed an event in Chatham attended by Minister of Children and Youth Services Mary Anne Chambers, and local MPPs Maria Van Bommel and Pat Hoy.

In London, Local 144 held a meeting attended by families. And Local 151 in Elgin is planning to be a part of a major anti-scab rally today in St. Thomas.

Members in London and St. Thomas were also joined on the lines by OPSEU members from Region 5, Toronto, including Executive Board Members David Rapaport, Nancy Pridham, and Ted Montgomery.

In Clinton, Local 144 and Local 146, Goderich Community Living met Health Minister George Smitherman and MPP Carol Mitchell at a Liberal pre-election event.

Community living employers across Ontario agree with OPSEU: the biggest problem facing developmental services is low wages. Staff are leaving the profession for equivalent positions because the pay is 25-30 percent more in other fields. Agencies can’t get enough qualified staff. Developmental services are in crisis and it is people with developmental disabilities that are suffering the most.

President Thomas responds

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas responded to a letter by Minister of Community and Social Services, Madeleine Meilleur, in the St. Thomas Times Journal.

Minister Meilleur’s July 18 letter did not give your readers all the facts about the strikes at four Community Living agencies in the London and St. Thomas area.

She is correct about one thing: the dedication and professionalism of these workers, their commitment and care the people they serve and their families.

But what Meilleur did not address was that these developmental services workers earn 25-30 per cent less than their counterparts in equivalent public service professions. Which means that right now they don’t really earn a living wage.

Yes, the Minister has allocated $42 million this year that could be used for wages. The operative word here is ‘could.’ But only $20 million of that money is specifically earmarked for wage enhancements; the rest could be used for anything. Sector-wide, this is a 2 per cent increase – well below inflation.

Even employers agree: workers need to make real gains in order to recruit trained professionals and keep them on the job. Two per cent just won’t cut it. They and we can’t hammer out a fair agreement, to use the Minister’s words, without the dollars to do so.

To settle these strikes, and create confidence within the developmental services sector, the Ministry has to get more of the $200-million in funding set aside in this year’s Budget to the agencies now, so they can continue to attract and keep the best workers and provide the best care.

Warren (Smokey) Thomas

President OPSEU

CUPE support letter

Cyndi Brumaroff of Community Living Sarnia, Local 4730, wrote to a local newspaper in support of striking OPSEU members. She writes:

“To members of the public who do not know the full extent of the job that the workers do at community living, let me tell you.

You must dispense meds, use feeding tubes, breathing machines and many other jobs that a nurse or nurse’s aid would perform. Workers attend medical appointments and write programs that benefit the potential growth, health and safety of clients.

They spend countless hours at the hospital or at home with them when they are sick. They take them on outings and try to integrate them into the community.

They do counselling and take care of their financial needs. They purchase clothing, personal items and Christmas gifts for them.

They are their family when they have none and even when they do. Workers are hit, punched, kicked, bitten and abused but yet they go to work every day with a smile because they are unselfish and do a job that many people would never consider doing.

They are asking for a fair wage increase and better working conditions. Let me remind the public that MPPs gave themselves, without our vote, a 28 per cent wage increase.”