The head of the union representing thousands of workers with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board believes the issues in the contract dispute have been narrowed down, but it takes two to get a deal.
President of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU/CUPE 1750), Harry Goslin, was in Windsor on Friday and joined local workers walking the picket line outside of Windsor-Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie's office at 5452 Tecumseh Rd. E.
Goslin says they think the parties are not that far apart.
"We should be very close; we've narrowed the issues, but it takes two parties to make this thing happen, and WSIB needs to come back to the table with their fair counter," he says.
3,600 unionized workers, including 180 in Windsor, walked off the job on May 21, the first strike in the agency's 111-year history, after contract talks that began in late February did not result in a tentative agreement.
Goslin says they need some tangible change in workload which has resulted in high levels of anxiety and despression among the members.
"When I was doing the job, I would come in early, I'd work through my lunch, and I'd stay late. I would go home and feel a lot of worry and angst about the workers I couldn't help that day, and I couldn't help them because of workload. Then I would go to bed, get up, and I would do it all over again, and the workers would be the first thing on my mind. You keep doing that day in and day out, and it tears you down," he says.
The WSIB provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to help people after a work-related injury or illness and is funded by premiums paid by Ontario businesses.
Goslin says they are also behind inflation by 5.25 per cent in terms of wages.
"This goes back to 2020 when Bill 124 and the three years of one per cent {raises} were imposed. We want to make up for that just like the professional engineers in the public sector did. Then we just want to mirror the trends in the public sector going forward,' he says.
Negotiations are ongoing, and the union was expecting a counteroffer from the WSIB on Friday.