As their strike hits its second week, Canadian Hearing Services workers were joined by members of the deaf and hard of hearing community on the picket line on Great Northern Road Friday afternoon.
Providing a wide array of supports and services for the deaf community, CHS 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 dwindled 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.
The striking workers are unsure when an agreement will be reached, as their union – CUPE 2073 – recently went to meet the employer, only to be met by a separate representative instead.
“On Tuesday, our union was to meet with the employer. The employer didn't show but sent her representative, without an offer. They do not want to give an offer at this time,” said Kerri Tuckett, a deaf blind intervenor with CHS in Sault Ste. Marie.
“We are going to continue striking and rallying and providing more outreach, more information, talking to the MPP, and hopefully try to force her back to the table,” Tuckett said.
“That's our goal – to get back to the table and to get a fair contract, to get back to work, to service our clients.”
One of the many services CHS provides is interpretation for the deaf community – a service that was needed to help a member of the deaf community, Cathy Trepasso, carry out an interview with SooToday.
Although local staff have functional ability with signing and interpreting sign language, they wanted to ensure a qualified interpreter – which Sault Ste. Marie does not currently have – was available to interview Trepasso.
As many of CHS’s services have become virtual, the group called an interpreter out of town, who is also on strike, to see if she could volunteer some time to interpret for Trepasso via FaceTime.
Additionally, given the fact it was sunny outside, workers asked staff at MPP Chris Scott’s office if they could step inside to carry out the interview without glare from the sun interfering with the call.
In total, it took several people over 20 minutes to create the conditions required for Trepasso to share her thoughts with the media – during which she extended support to CHS workers.
“I'm here to provide support to the CHS staff. They provide a valuable service within the deaf and hard of hearing communities,” Trepasso told SooToday.
“Right now, there are people in our community who have no text, have no technology and have no way to contact anyone, so we're feeling very lost. We do feel that it should be easy to get access for the deaf community, because it's so vitally important.”
Trepasso said service levels have taken a turn for the worse in recent years, as decreasing staff levels force workers to do more with less.
“There have been big, big, big changes over the last several years. There used to be a time when every bit of information we needed was there and available to us,” she said.
She said relying on FaceTime for interpretation services has been a frustrating experience, as has dealing with the strike – although she supports CHS workers.
“It is extremely frustrating, definitely not an easy situation to be in. Deaf people have rights. Deaf people and hard of hearing people all have rights, and we need access to service,” she said.
“Without those services, we are feeling completely lost. We don't want to have to depend on other people. We want to be able to depend on the service provider.”
CHS workers previously told SooToday about their frustrations with virtual services, highlighting how the deaf community would prefer to have a brick-and-mortar location to access – which Sault Ste. Marie used to have.
"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,” said CHS’s Gisella Lepore last week.
“They're doing without, which is causing long-term effects for them.”