As a return-to-work specialist for Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), Justin Dailey helps people get back to their jobs following injuries.
These days, the Hamilton man would like to return to work himself.
Along with about 3,600 colleagues, Dailey has been on strike since May 22. Members of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) — also called Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1750 — walked off the job, calling out a “toxic” workplace and saying they were unable to reach an agreement with their employer. Soon after, workers said WSIB locked them out, and the strike continued.
“We care about the quality of work that we provide to our injured workers and we can’t get back to that, and so we’re suffering, the injured workers are suffering. It’s a challenging time,” Dailey told CBC Hamilton after a morning of picketing during last week’s heat wave outside the downtown WSIB offices.
Dailey and his colleagues are some of the Hamilton workers, with different employers, who’ve spent late spring and early summer on picket lines. They include workers with Hamilton Water, delivery company DHL Express Canada and Canadian Hearing Services (CHS). All have varying reasons and circumstances for being on strike.
But two workers told CBC Hamilton they’re in it together.
“We’re all fighting this systemic kind of attack on unions, but specifically workers. It’s almost like [employers] want us to be satisfied with the scraps that they’re giving us, which I don’t agree with,” Dailey said, adding his union has rallied with other striking unions and the Hamilton and District Labour Council.
“Hamilton is a very strong union city.”
WSIB says it’s addressing workers’ concerns
On Friday, OCEU/CUPE 1750 issued a news release calling on the employer “to stop stalling and bring forward a fair deal” by Canada Day. The union said WSIB hasn’t shared a contract proposal since June 15, and that they want its “best and final offer.”
Aaron Lazarus, vice-president of communications at WSIB, told CBC Hamilton that negotiations are ongoing and the employer does not plan to issue a formal final offer by Tuesday. On the prospect of a deal, he said WSIB is “as hopeful as ever.”
WSIB is offering an above-inflation wage increase and proposed improving a committee on workload to address members’ concerns, Lazarus said, adding caseloads have come down from a 2021 high.
Dailey said wages and workload are important issues for him and his colleagues, who are struggling with burnout. For his position, Dailey said, having around 30 cases is comfortable, but he had around 40.
“We are a system here. If there’s a strain on one area or department, it’s a strain on all of us,” Dailey said. “We all just want to get back to work to help the public.”
“We want them back too,” Lazarus said, adding WSIB is operating at 40 per cent of its normal capacity, but can still help injured workers and register new claims and businesses.
Elsewhere in Hamilton, striking CHS workers told CBC Hamilton they’re also keen to get back to work. About 200 members of CUPE Local 2073 have been on strike since April 28.
“We’re all fighting for the deaf community to have access to their services,” Laura Burrows, who’s worked at CHS for over 20 years, said on June 23 outside her employer’s Hamilton office at King Street West and Dundurn Street.
CHS is Ontario’s largest provider of ASL interpreting and mental-health care for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. It also offers emergency interpreting to hospitals, police, courts and long-term care facilities.
“I represent the community that is awaiting service now and I also represent my colleagues here at CHS,” Burrows, who says she’s “culturally deaf,” said in sign language through an interpreter. “There really aren’t other options for the deaf community right now.”
Laura Burrows of Hamilton has worked for Canadian Hearing Services for 20 years. Now on strike from her job, Burrows says she’s representing her colleagues and deaf community as a picket captain.
Days after Burrows spoke to CBC Hamilton, CUPE 2073 met with the employer to bargain. Before that, the union said they had not met since May 21.
“Canadian Hearing Services came to the table with an offer, but with no consideration of our proposals, no willingness to listen to our challenges and no understanding of the urgent needs of our clients,” CUPE spokesperson Jesse Mintz said in an emailed statement.
CHS then pulled its offer, Mintz said.
CBC Hamilton asked CHS for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
In May, a CHS spokesperson said in an email “there are no negative impacts on deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Hamilton, as we continue to provide services.” CHS did not provide further detail on how it was providing those services.
Burrows said her workplace used to be “pleasant and healthy,” but services moved online early in the COVID-19 pandemic, to their detriment.
“I don’t believe that we’re currently accommodating the needs of the community in easing those barriers that they face every day,” she said, adding members want to return to the office.
Both Dailey and Burrows said being on strike has brought them closer to work colleagues.
“There’s a lot of cohesion and solidarity,” Burrows said. “I’d say we’ve become a family here on the picketing line. I’ve had a great amount of support from my colleagues.
“We’re all in the same boat facing the same struggles together and we’re working for a common goal [to] get the employer back to the table.”
