Children’s Aid Society (CAS) workers began picketing outside the head office of Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County here on April 11.
CUPE local 4325 and Family and Children’s Services management have been negotiating a new contract for CAS workers since March 2015.
After mediated talks broke down last week the union officially went on strike on April 16 at 12:01am.
Though the CAS workers will be picketing from 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday, Family and Children’s Services will remain open to the public.
“We have staff that are here that are taking the calls and doing the work that our unionized staff typically do,” said Family and Children’s Services executive director Sheila Merkle. “We’re basically triaging what needs to be sorted and just making sure that the things that need to get done get done.”
She said essential services like responding to calls about child safety, visits to families in need of continued support, and services for youth and kids in the agency’s care will continue to be offered throughout the strike.
Management and its support staff, are helping to provide essential services, with some assistance from outside the agency.
CUPE local 4325 president Cathy Thomas said the union worked hard to reach a deal on April 4, when management and the union had a day of mediation talks.
“We were the ones that said put together a deal,” she said. “Management’s first comments through the mediator were they weren’t prepared to budge. That’s how they started the day off.”
Ninety-five out of 123 members of CUPE 4325 were in attendance for the contract vote, with 68 per cent voting to reject the offer from management.
The union worked with a mediator again to put a deal together that was presented to management on April 8.
“We said okay let’s meet face to face. This is our agency let’s meet. We were turned down,” Thomas said. “We offered to meet them on Saturday at 10 and they declined.”
Merkle said the mediator will bring the two parties back to the bargaining table if there isn’t a resolution.
“We’ve been talking with the union about exploring whether coming back together for a meeting is going to be helpful and I think we are continuing to say that as soon as we’re hearing that the union leadership indicates its willingness to compromise, we’re very interested in a meeting,” said Merkle.
“But there has to be some give on their part and a true willingness to find a solution.
“We’re working within a balanced budget environment … we’re not allowed to run deficits, so there’s only so much, we’re doing the best we can for our staff under those constraints.”
Thomas said the union is willing to have further discussions “anywhere, any time, any place.”
“We’re not far apart. That’s the irony of it,” Thomas said. “But management has given us no offer other than their final offer we received on the fourth.
“They talk but they don’t put anything in writing.”
In January management presented a deal to union negotiators.
“We had a signed agreement between management and the union in January and the negotiating team for the union unanimously signed the deal and it went to the membership to be ratified and it wasn’t ratified,” Merkle explained.
The union membership rejected the deal in a 71% vote. Following that was a 90% vote to strike on April 9 if what the union calls a “suitable” offer was not made.
“It’s more about the fairness,” Thomas said, adding workers are looking for equality and respect in their new contract.
Wages and benefits negotiations stay local, Thomas explained – there is no provincial representation.
The local union represents 130 social service workers providing ongoing support and services to about 450 families, assisting 150 to 200 children in the agency’s care, working with 74 foster families, and handling 25 to 50 walk-ins per day.
As of April 12 no new discussion dates had been planned.
“However … even over the weekend there (were) discussions … between our negotiator and theirs, whether or not coming together would be helpful … or is there some compromise that … they’re willing to entertain,” Merkle said.
“At this point it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”
She did emphasize the organization is still open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“I just think it’s important for the community to know that they can still call us, that we will still be responding, that things that are of a non-urgent nature may not get the same response they would typically get but that anybody that needs our assistance, please call us, don’t let a strike get in the way of feeling that you can reach out to us,” said Merkle.
