A strike involving unionized employees at two local community health agencies is now in its tenth week.
Employees under the Ontario Public Services Employees Union at Lanark Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health and Children’s Mental Health of Leeds and Grenville first took job action on May 25 over issues including wages.
On Sunday, union leaders say they met with their employer and asked for William Kaplan, a Canadian lawyer and arbitrator, to be brought in to help bring a resolution but they say they were told on Tuesday that idea wasn’t acceptable.
LLGAMH Bargaining Team Chair Magean Plue tells the Vista Radio Newsroom that the response sends a clear message.
“It’s disrespectful to the employees of the agency, to our community, to the people who aren’t receiving services. We extended an olive branch, we were willing to go back to work even while the process continued in the background.”
Now, bargaining team member Matt Schliesmann tells the Vista Radio Newsroom that union members will look at taking elevated job action.
“We’re going to be looking at lot of different options coming up. We felt like we provided the province and our employer some pretty good options over the past few weeks in terms of mediation and stuff and it’s all been turned down.”
Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark has countered in the past that the province has delivered sufficient funding for the agencies.
He says he has brought in over $28.8 million in mental health and addictions funding to the riding.
