The union representing inside workers at the City of Windsor says members have voted in favour of a strike if their concerns around a range of issues aren't dealt with.
CUPE Local 543 president David Petten says 77 per cent of membership agreed to move forward with a strike, but that no deadline or date for such action has been set as of now.
Petten says talks with the Corporation of the City of Windsor have been ongoing now for 11 months since their contract ended at the end of December 2021.
He says there are a number of issues that they're trying to get addressed at the table.
"We have work-life balance issues, retention and recruitment issues, and we also have equity issues in terms of compensation and benefits," he continued. "Our working group is actually female dominated, so about 70 per cent of our members are female."
Petten says the female members of the working group stepped up during the pandemic, despite the disproportionate amount of women who have extra burdens like finding child care and elder care.
"Because of COVID-19 and because of how well they stepped up during the pandemic to continue services that our community needs, they're feeling tired, they're feeling fatigued, burnt out, and there's mental health and wellness issues that are arising. We're just trying to get some of those issues taken care of at the table but we haven't found a willing partner yet," he said.
He described the talks to this point as "abysmal".
"We've been at the table for 11 months and you know what, we don't have much to show for it at this point. We've resolved some small issues but these larger issues have been still hanging on the table and we haven't been able to get them taken care of. There's probably one issue that really stands out to me that I really don't understand why it's an issue and that of course is the equity issues that we have."
Petten wants to see more female workers being considered as full time employees, as currently about half of their female members are working hours that a financial institution would consider part time.
Petten says they're scheduled to be back at the table on October 3, if not sooner.
He says they wanted a mandate from members ahead of that time to show the City how serious they are, but added no one wants to see a work stoppage of any kind.
Petten says workers enjoy what they do in providing services to the community, and just want to be compensated and treated fairly.
Social service workers, bylaw enforcement officers, and building inspectors are some of the employees at the city represented by CUPE Local 543, and depending on the time of year Petten says they represent around 1,300 workers.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi