As their strike hits its third week, Canadian Hearing Services workers are still picketing along Great Northern Ave.
Many of the organization’s critical services are on pause, and the ongoing strike has become an emotional experience for Gisele Bourgault – a CHS employee and member of the deaf community.
“There's a lot of emotions, because I am a person that is deaf and I work with the deaf,” she told SooToday through an interpreter. “I am part of the deaf community, and there's a lot of emotions involved, and it's really hard.”
Management has yet to come to the bargaining table, workers said, with last week’s planned meeting between their union, CUPE 2073, and management resulting in management sending a separate representative instead.
That said, another meeting is scheduled for May 21.
“It's important to know that we don't want to be on strike. We want our bargaining team to be at the table while we're doing jobs we love, but CHS refused to bargain fairly,” Bourgault said.
“They tried to force a deal on us, a deal that would have hurt workers and the people we support.”
CHS provides a wide array of supports and services for the deaf community, and workers are frustrated with dwindling staff numbers, a push for services to be virtual, shuttered office spaces, and stagnating compensation – all while CHS executives have seen large wage increases in recent years.
The organization has dropped from 500 former employees to the 200 it has now – including a drop from 10 in Sault Ste. Marie to 6 – resulting in workers that have grown frustrated as they are overburdened with increasing workloads and dwindling resources.
“That means we're overworked while deaf, deaf blind, and hard of hearing Ontarians have limited access to the supports they need,” Bourgault said.
“We've watched our paychecks shrink behind inflation as senior management has been given double digit raises. That's not fair, and it explains why morale at our agency is so low.”
Bourgault hopes the union and management can strike a deal that will get workers back on the job next week.
“We asked CHS for a mediator to help solve this crisis, and they refused. Every day this strike drags on, it hurts deaf and hard of hearing Ontarians, but they don't seem to have any urgency to resolve this,” she said.
“My message to CHS is to come prepared to make a deal that ends this and gets us back to serving the community," Bourgault said.
In a statement, Canadian Hearing Services said the organization is "steadfast in its commitment to the service of the deaf and hard of
hearing communities, and, as such, is committed to reaching a fair and responsible collective agreement.
"We look forward to returning to the table where we always bargain in good faith and engage in respectful dialogue."