Worth Fighting For campaign launched by community and social services workers

Community and social services workers are fighting for an increase in their wages.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and Ontario Public Services Employees Union say workers have not been compensated after the court struck down labour-restricting legislation.

Bill 124 was imposed in 2019, forcing public sector employees to have annual wage increases of no more than one percent.

The court in 2022 ruled the legislation unconstitutional, agreeing with several labour unions that it interfered with collective bargaining.

Some public sector workers were awarded compensatory increases.

Community and social services workers say they are still awaiting the same.

“CUPE’s Juanita Forde says while wages have since increased for nurses and education workers, they continue to wait for the same.

“For too long, the Conservative government has picked winners and losers, choosing groups of workers to support while ignoring and forgetting others,” says Juanita Ford, a development services worker for the Toronto area.

“Bill 124 was repealed 18 months ago. In that time, Ford has picked some groups of workers to make whole, but has continued to ignore the frontline community and social service workers who provide care in our province.”

CUPE President J.P. Hornick says workers catch up for wages that were taken away by the bill.

“For years, workers have dealt with low wages that are pushing them to moonlight in second or third jobs or to rely on food banks themselves,” says Hornick.

“At the same time, families across the province struggle to find mental health supports for their children or assisted living services for their loved ones. That is a direct result of the chronic underfunding.”

Workers say the underfunding has led to understanding, high workloads, burnout and high staff turnover.

Cindy Mazon, a development services worker in Thunder Bay, says that hurts the people they support.

“They lose the relationship with the people they trust and the consistency they rely on,” says Mazon.

“On top of that, agencies are forced to spend scarce funds training new workers over and over and over again – money that could be invested in programs and fair wages.”

Workers add that some are forced to take on two or three jobs to make ends meet.

Union leaders say strike votes have already been taken in pending contract negotiations with agencies, with wages the central issue.