Unionized workers with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board are out on strike for the first time in the organization’s history.
Workers could be seen picketing along Great Northern Road this afternoon.
The strike began on Thursday as frustration came to a head with skyrocketing caseloads, high rates of anxiety and depression among workers, and more. Workers asked for these issues to be addressed at the bargaining table.
“We are wildly understaffed, and the workloads are crushing. We've got extremely high levels of stress,” said Chantal Reid, an appeals resolution officer and recording secretary for CUPE Local 1750.
WSIB helps those with work-related injuries or illnesses access wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to help get back to work. Caseloads have crept up from 40-50 per worker historically to around 140 per worker today, she said.
“We're just not able to keep up with that pace. People are working through their lunches. They're working through their breaks,” Reid said.
“People are just working basically around the clock trying to keep up with the demands, because the workload is unbelievable.”
With 3,600 unionized workers on strike, including around 1,000 in northern Ontario, the union’s demands include some of the recommendations that came out of a workplace study in recent years – which found WSIB workers experience anxiety and depression at a much higher rate than average.
“What we would like to do is implement a list of action items that came out of the Copenhagen psychosocial survey that we did,” said Harry Goslin, president of CUPE Local 1750, who spoke with SooToday by phone from Toronto.
“The survey shows us that this is a toxic workplace. It shows us that anxiety and depression are nearly double the national average. People have severe risk of significant mental health problems.”
Some of those recommendations include implementing a ceiling on caseloads, or implementing minimum staffing levels at WSIB.
“They've rejected all those ideas,” Goslin said.
Reid and Goslin said WSIB has offered a 4.5 per cent wage increase over three years – averaging out to 1.5 per cent per year – which is another concern the union plans to bring to the bargaining table.
“That's well below any other contract that's being signed at this point, well below inflation,” said Reid. “That's a sticking point. We just want to keep with inflation.”
Goslin said workers wages have not kept up with inflation.
“Since 2020 we're behind 5.25 per cent – we'd like to make up for that to break even," he said.
Other concerns raised include WSIB’s contract with Iron Mountain, penned earlier this year, which could outsource the jobs of 26 WSIB workers to the U.S., as well as $14.5 million spent on coaching through U.S.-based company BetterUp – which “would have paid for a 4 per cent wage increase,” Goslin said.
According to a WSIB news release from Thursday, they have not heard from the union since Monday.
"The WSIB has submitted the most recent offer in the negotiation process and is awaiting a response."
SooToday has reached out to the WSIB for comment.
The WSIB website says members of the public can still report injury or illness, submit documents, access clearances, and more online, and telephone support will be available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. – “though wait times are likely to be higher than usual.”
Aaron Lazarus, VP of communications with WSIB, said the organization hasn't heard from the union since Monday.
“The union, on Monday evening, took their suitcases and walked out, and we haven't had any response since,” he told SooToday.
“We're waiting for the union's response to our last offer, and we'd be happy to keep negotiating at the table, but unfortunately, the union executive walked away.”
Lazarus questioned the methodology used in the Copenhagen study, mentioning it had a 30-per-cent response rate at WSIB.
“The authors themselves questioned the methodology right on page two of the survey,” he said.
“It says a response rate of less than 50 per cent means that either the administration of the survey was not done properly, or that a large portion of the group being surveyed did not have confidence in the process.”
While the strike takes place, Lazarus said services are still available at WSIB.
“People in the Sault should know that the WSIB is here to help and we remain open to them, so if they need our services we are here to help,” he said.
“Our message to our staff is that we would welcome them back with open arms, and our message to the union executives is that we hope they return to the table and stop putting themselves first, so that we can get an agreement.”