After 99 days of being locked out of the Nipissing and Parry Sound Children’s Aide Society (CAS), starting on Christmas Eve past, worker representatives have reached a new level of frustration, taking them to the streets of North Bay Friday afternoon. Starting from their picket line outside the CAS building, they marched down Main Street, North Bay City Hall their destination, crying out ‘enough is enough,’ while holding their flags high in the wind.
But before taking to the streets, speakers Charles Fleury, National Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE; Fred Hahn, President, CUPE Ontario; Alan Aylett MD, North Bay family physician; and Debbie Hill, President, CUPE 2049 joined with media to make a bold statement to Michael Coteau, Minister of Children and Youth Services.
“Everyone agrees this lockout cannot continue,” Hahn spoke to media before the march. “I’m here today to deliver a very clear and direct message. It’s time for [Coteau] to dissolve the board of directors of the Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS. It’s time for the ministry to take over this agency, and it’s time for this agency to put our workers back to work to the job they love.”
This rally comes the day after bargaining talks broke down Thursday afternoon, again putting the conflict between both parties at a standstill. Hill said she was angry when she woke up Friday morning for a number of reasons, mostly as a result of the frustration of what she claimed to be lies from the CAS.
“I’m angry that we’re on day 99 locked out of our workplace; I’m angry that children’s and families in our community are suffering because we are locked out of our workplace; and I’m angry that our employer continues to lie about us,” she said. “I was at the bargaining table yesterday and it’s pretty much the same story we’ve experienced over the last year of trying to come to the table for a collective bargaining agreement. I can tell you that the Union 2049 has come to that table repeatedly with compromises and we did that again yesterday and again we heard ‘no.’”
Hill said it wasn’t even about the sick leave argument that has been used so frequently, where claims that approximately 80 sick days are too much for workers.
“We’ve said it before, it’s all smoke and mirrors in our perspective, there is no additional cost,” she said. “It’s the same cost whether I’m at home or at work. Another piece is that this is a pretty standard across the Province in the sector and in other sectors in the health services. It’s not unusual what we’re asking for.”
And for these reasons CUPE is calling upon Minister Coteau, a demand Hahn said they do not make lightly. At the rally, he said should any tragedies preventable by the locked out workers be on the head of Coteau, who according to Hahn, needs to step in to put an end to the lockout.
“We’re lucky on day 99 something tragic hasn’t happened in our communities,” Hahn said at the rally. “There are 10 replacement workers doing the work of 150 workers. There is no way 10 workers can do the work 140 trained professionals can do. It’s impossible. A crisis can happen at any moment and we’re just lucky one hasn’t happened yet.”
