You may have seen a few picketers wearing pink signs along Great Northern Road today, and the fact that there were only a few is part of the reason Canadian Hearing Services workers were out there to begin with.
Since Monday, the organization’s employees have been on strike – due in part to dwindling numbers and the overburdened employees who remain on staff.
The organization, which provides an array of services and supports for Ontario’s deaf and hard of hearing community, has dwindled from 500 employees to the 200 it has now, and from 10 in Sault Ste. Marie to 6.
“People are retiring, or people are losing their jobs for whatever reasons, and they're not rehiring people,” said local hearing care counsellor Gisella Lepore.
“The staff that is there is picking up some of the slack because there's no one to fill these positions.”
While providing services ranging from audiology, education, and counselling, to assisting clients with day-to-day appointments, Lepore said the organization has also transitioned to be more virtual than in-person – adding additional degrees of difficulty to providing adequate supports.
“They want the service to be virtual, but that doesn't work for people who don't have access to a computer or can't hear on the phone,” she said.
“We have clients right now who can't get to their appointments, because that's part of what we do. We bring them to the appointments, we provide (guidance), and then we help make sure that they can hear and understand at their appointments so that they can be part of the appointment.”
In recent years, some Canadian Hearing Services offices have also shuttered their doors – including the location in Sault Ste. Marie.
"Our deaf community would be able to come to our office and say, ‘I have this appointment, (or) can you help me schedule an appointment?’ Now they can't. They don't even know how to contact us,” Lepore said.
“They're doing without, which is causing long-term effects for them.”
Beyond climbing case counts and overworked staff members, another issue that brought on the strike, Lepore said, is compensation.
“Last year, the director of marketing got a 40-per-cent raise, the VP of business development got a 30-per-cent raise, and our director of HR got a 22-per-cent raise,” she said.
“We believe that the front line workers who make a meaningful difference for deaf and hard of hearing Ontarians deserve more than a two-per-cent raise.”
As workers – represented by CUPE 2073 – are currently without a contract, Lepore said they will remain on strike at least until new terms are offered.
“We can't work without a contract, which is why we're here picketing,” she said.
“We need them to be able to come to the table with an offer in an accessible form so that we can make an informed choice, and that hasn't happened.”