OTTAWA,
ON, July 31, 2024 /CNW/ - After more than
three weeks on strike, Children's Aid Society of Ottawa (CASO) workers have ratified a new
agreement with the agency – but workers say that the fight is far
from over.
"The decision to go out was not one we made easily, but workers
were faced with an impossible choice," said Michele Thorn, President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local
454, representing over 300 CASO workers. "The conditions at the
agency are untenable and compromise not just our mental health, but
also the consistency and quality of support we're able to provide.
We're watching as Children's Aid Societies all across Ontario are gutted – something has to
change."
Thorn says that the conditions that led us to this point will
continue to deteriorate unless there is urgent, interministerial
action to fund CAS agencies and deliver province-wide relief.
Despite their best efforts, Thorn says that Ottawa workers are still staring down
mass-layoffs – as many as 38 full-time positions across the
three-year term of the agreement.
The pressures faced by CASO workers are not isolated to the
Ottawa agency. In the last six
months alone, dozens of staffing cuts have swept across the
province, impacting workers at London-Middlesex Children's Aid
Society, OPSEU/SEFPO Local 116; Kawartha-Haliburton Children's Aid
Society, OPSEU/SEFPO Local 334; and Linck
Child, Youth and Family Support Services, OPSEU/SEFPO Local
148.
"A record number of youth are slipping through the cracks due to
a lack of resources to maintain wrap-around supports and the
transition to independent living," added Thorn. "We're mourning
loss after loss while crying out for change – all the while, the
Ministry [of Children, Community and Social Services] maintains
that the status quo works."
Over the last few weeks, the picket line became an important
platform to amplify workers' calls for systemic change. CASO
workers routinely go beyond the scope of their roles to fill
service gaps caused by funding neglect of community partners and
other social supports – the same financial strain impacting CAS
agencies.
"We are facing a critical funding crisis that affects the very
heart of our services," said Chrisy
Tremblay, a member of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454, Executive Board
Member for Region 4, and OPSEU/SEFPO's Chair for Sector 4, Child
Welfare. "Staff cuts and program reductions mean we can't provide
the meaningful support our children and families desperately
need."
"While workers supporting some of the most vulnerable kids in
Ontario are bracing a child
welfare crisis on their backs, this government's attentions are on
big business, rapid expansion of alcohol, and shuttering beloved
public institutions," added OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick. "At
what point do we put kids first?"
In a letter of support penned to workers last week, Ontario's former Child Advocate, Irwin Elman, noted that "we are six years into a
government-led child welfare system 'redesign' that has brought on
the hollowing out of every support system serving vulnerable
children and families…an entirely government-made perfect
storm…that has placed our systems of care in free fall."
Early intervention and preventative work were set as provincial
priorities in the Ford government's "overhaul" of child welfare,
but workers maintain that the funding hasn't followed this
departure from traditional child protection work to more
resource-intensive approaches – leaving 40 out of 44 Children's Aid
Societies in deficit.
"The strike was the first time that we felt that our struggles
were heard and seen by the public, and by this province," said
Thorn. "We're not going to stop standing up for children and
families and fighting for better."
SOURCE Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)