CUPE members who work in the home and community support services sector are calling on the Ontario government to come back to the bargaining table and settle a wage issue.
Just over a dozen members of CUPE Local 8916 held a protest Wednesday outside the office of Windsor-Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie before delivering a petition demanding that the Ontario government and the Treasury Board come back to the table to negotiate a fair wage increase.
CUPE members working on the administration side of Home and Community Support Services have not yet settled their wage reopener negotiations after the Ontario government's Bill 124 was overturned.
The legislation limited the public sector to a one percent increase a year for three years, but in February of this year, the Superior Court of Justice ruled it was unconstitutional.
CUPE Local 8916 president Shaun Steven says they're all very frustrated that they haven't been able to secure a fair wage increase for many years now.
"It's becoming very difficult to make ends meet. It's very hard to live in Ontario these days, wherever you are. It's hard to afford anything, we're very frustrated," he says.
Steven says they want the opportunity to bargain for fair wages.
"We want to sit down and bargain for what we always should have been able to bargain for over the previous three-year period. Bill 124 was illegal; the legislation should have never been passed; it was dishonest; it was a dirty tactic, and they have to make it right," he says.
CUPE Local 8916 represents roughly 140 employees working in the Home and Community Support Services (HCCSS) in Windsor-Essex, Sarnia-Lambton, and Chatham-Kent.
Steven says they've been at an impasse over wages for awhile.
"We do have another bargaining date scheduled, but the last two times they told us, 'yeah, we have an offer for you.' It was insultingly low, it was nothing, not even worth talking about,' he says.
Wednesday's protest was the first of eight actions being held across the province by CUPE members working in home and community care.
The 14 Home and Community Care Support Services organizations across the province coordinate in-home and community-based care for people of all ages who require medical care in their home, at school, or in the community.