Frontline mental health workers at the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)—Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike after years of underfunding and the wage suppression of Bill 124 pushed them into poverty.
Members of CUPE 5258—including nurses, mental health workers, and family education support workers—deliver critical community-based care across a rural area the size of Prince Edward Island. They run crisis response and safe bed programs, offer counselling, addictions and suicide prevention, support people with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges and much more. With 30 different programs across four counties, these 176 workers supported 80,000 service users last year.
Despite their outsized impact, these workers earn up to $15 an hour less than counterparts at other agencies. Many hold multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Chronic provincial underfunding has left services stretched to the breaking point, with waitlists for mental health care reaching 18 months last year.
“People may think the pandemic is behind us, but we see its impact every single day,” said Allison Merritt, family education support worker and president of CUPE 5258. “We’re seeing people who held their lives together through the crisis now coming apart and in desperate need of help. There just aren’t enough of us to meet the need. Our communities deserve so much more.”
The strike vote follows months of organizing through the Worth Fighting For campaign which unites thousands of CUPE and OPSEU members from more than 50 social services agencies across Ontario. The campaign demands fair wages and renewed investment in community services after years of neglect and the unconstitutional wage cap of Bill 124. While some public sector workers have been compensated for lost wages, Doug Ford’s Conservatives have ignored the workers who form the backbone of Ontario’s care economy.
“Ask parents of children on the autism waitlist or child protection workers who are forced to warehouse children in motels, and they’ll tell you that our social services are on the verge of collapse. This government has underfunded agencies and disregarded workers, hurting communities for years,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario. “That’s why we have waitlists and workers at food banks. We deserve a better Ontario, and these jobs, good services, and healthy communities are worth fighting for. The years of workers in social services quietly accepting whatever scraps the government hands out are over. We’re ready for a fight.”
Across Ontario, dozens of social service locals have taken or are preparing for strike votes, signaling growing frustration among frontline care workers and a coordinated demand for action.