CUPE- A Letter to Ontario Workers

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dear Ontario Workers, As the president of Ontario Compensation Employees Union, a proud member of CUPE, I represent over 3600 workers at the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB).

Workplace Safety & Insurance Board employees serve workers, their families, and employers in Ontario, providing compensation for loss of earnings, benefits and health care coverage to eligible employees who suffered an injury or illness because of their job.

Before I was elected to represent this hard-working group, I worked as a case manager myself. It was my job to make sure injured workers, and their families got the support they needed. That’s what most people know about the WSIB.

At 19, I lost half of my hearing because of a traumatic incident in a factory. I learned that injured workers need a conscientious WSIB worker looking out for their best interest. This is what my colleagues take pride in doing for injured workers in Ontario.

I’m sitting somewhere no union president wants to be; talking to the people of Ontario about the possibility that we could be forced to withdraw our labor from the place where we work and to pause the critical services we provide to this province.

This isn’t something we take lightly. Every one of my coworkers wakes up in the morning thinking about the needs of Ontario’s injured workers, and when we end our workday, we don’t just turn that off.

The workers we serve aren’t just names and medical records in a file. They are real people who have suffered a traumatic injury, been exposed to disease at work or in some cases lost their life. Those workers and their families need our help to make it through what can be one of the most challenging times in anyone’s life.

We take that responsibility incredibly seriously.

But we too are workers. And we too need support.

We take pride in the fact that our organization is in a surplus position and has no unfunded liabilities. The WSIB is not funded by taxpayers. Funding comes solely from Ontario Employers. Our negotiations have ZERO impact on the Ontario budget.

I am calling on the Ford government and the WSIB CEO and Board of Directors to do their job and get these negotiations on the right path. To do what’s right, and what’s good for their workforce, good for the organization and the Ontarians we serve.

Too many of my coworkers are running on fumes due to work overload in a toxic environment as validated by a third-party survey.

When the workers who deliver the very services Ontarians rely on are struggling, it has an unavoidable impact on service delivery. I know we can do better. We must do better!

We urgently need resources and investment in training so that we can improve delivery of service. Once we do that, employee wellness will also improve.

The WSIB has been around for over 100 years and has never been on strike before. But things are so bad that my coworkers came out in a show of force to deliver a 96% strike vote with an over 85% participation rate. If we need to take legal strike action, we will be ready.

The union’s decision to commence strike action will be informed by what happens in the coming days of bargaining. It was management that filed a surprise request to terminate the collective agreement. Our bargaining team has negotiated an extension for the negotiations until May 21st. We are committed to reaching a fair deal for our members, but we need a willing partner at the table to make that happen.

The WSIB is dreaming if they think we will accept a deal that includes employer cuts, that fails to address the very real and systemic work overload problem, micromanagement and that does not include fair compensation. Low employee morale at WSIB cannot be addressed by clawing back provisions in our collective agreement. But that is what WSIB is trying to do.

Workers have all too often observed management rationalize their raises and bonuses. It’s workers who feel the sting of inflation. No one should be asked to do with less.

If the WSIB cannot present an offer that respects my coworkers and our needs, we will be forced to take legal strike action.

We don’t want that to happen. Nothing concerns us more than the effect that job action might have on injured workers who need our help. We will do our best to mitigate those effects, we can’t allow our employer to exploit our compassion for injured workers to force a deal that puts us even further behind. And we know Ontarians don’t want this.

We are ready to do whatever it takes to get a deal. We’ve got amazing allies across the province. We hope the WSIB can see what the rest of us see and prevent this from happening.

In Solidarity, Harry Goslin
President of OCEU/CUPE Local 1750

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