Children's Aid Society of Ottawa workers ratify new contract, vow to continue the fight against ongoing cuts

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)

For more information, contact: Michele Thorn, President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454, [phone]; Vic Wojciechowska, OPSEU/SEFPO Communications, [phone], [email protected]