Striking Dilico Anishinabek Family Care workers found a bit of optimism on the picket lines Monday morning.
Hundreds of striking Communications Energy and Paperworkers union members hit the picket lines within the Fort William First Nations community and the former Heath school on James Street earlier this month. Since then neither side has been in contact, but both parties are expected to return to the bargaining table Tuesday.
Dilico acting executive director Darcia Borg wouldn’t provide details as to what the company is offering. However, she did say that Dilico has a fixed budget for the next three years and that the caseloads are meeting the provincial standards.
“We are open to meeting tomorrow and having some open dialogue around the issues that have been presented,” she said Monday.
“We would hope to reach an agreement. We would prefer to wait and discuss it at the negotiating table. It is critical that we reach an agreement. Not only does Dilico provide child welfare services but we also provide services to other children, families and elders through our addiction and mental health programs.”
The high number of caseloads, the way employees are paid for being on-call and for their overtime are some of the main issues.
Dilico met with families last week following the strike. Borg called the meetings honest and said they heard the families concerns and believes the solutions to those issues needs to be an ongoing process.
CEP local 7-0 president Candace Lavalley said she and the members are hopeful that they can come to an agreement but they want to make sure that the issues they have brought up are discussed.
“This is not just a money issue,” she said. “It’s also regarding workloads. We changed the name from caseload to workload because caseload doesn’t really explain what the workload is. We’re glad that we’re going back to the table but there will be a lot of hard work.”
Lavalley was aware that Dilico has a fixed budget but she argued that the company is getting a two per cent increase every year for the next five years. She said that they also don’t believe the caseload is on par with the province.
“Our workers need to get back to work,” she said.
“Our clients need our workers and we need to get this service to what it should be. We don’t believe the contingency plan by Dilico is working.”
