OPSEU/SEFPO And CUPE Ontario Community And Social Services Workers Launch“Worth Fighting For” Coordinated Bargaining Campaign At Rally In Hamilton

(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) Hamilton, Ontario, Sept. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, hundreds of OPSEU/SEFPO and CUPE Ontario workers and labour allies rallied in Hamilton to demand immediate, long-term funding for community and social services; affirming their commitment to coordinated bargaining efforts and actions until their services are adequately funded.

As part of the Worth Fighting For coordinated bargaining campaign , community and social service workers have formed a coalition to take their bargaining demands directly to the funder of the agencies they work at: the Ford government.

Their demands are simple: long-term funding to provide a critical lifeline for the frontline community services they provide and justice for stolen wages.

OPSEU/SEFPO and CUPE Ontario collectively represent more than 50,000 workers who serve their communities every day as developmental service workers, child protection workers, mental health and addictions workers, and in myriad other critical roles. While they have watched workers across other public sectors receive backpay from the provincial government since Bill 124 was struck down, these workers continue to be ignored – robbed of thousands of dollars in wages – and the services they deliver have been slashed due to chronic underfunding.

Since Ford was first elected in 2018, per capita spending for children, community and social services and postsecondary education has shrunk each year. The Financial Accountability Office estimates that the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services programs were underfunded by $3.7 billion in 2024.

This underfunding has devastating real life impacts, translating to more than 50,000 adults waiting for developmental services, more than 70,000 children with autism waiting for core therapy, and hundreds of children in the care of child protection agencies left sleeping in motels, hotels, and offices due to a lack of proper facilities.

It also means that community support workers remain among the lowest paid workers in the public service as rates of burnout skyrocket.

More than 70 OPSEU/SEFO and CUPE locals are currently negotiating new collective agreements with coordinated demands. To date, 70 bargaining units have jointly filed for conciliation and further escalation is expected this Fall.

Quotes

“Children's Aid agencies are warehousing kids in motels and office buildings. Shelters are overloaded. Our community and social services are crumbling, and we can't afford this crisis any longer. The Ford government has tried to point blame elsewhere, but when these sectors have been so chronically underfunded that employers can't afford to pay workers livable wages – that's on the government. It's on them, as the funder, to fix it. OPSEU/SEFPO and CUPE Ontario members are fighting for an Ontario where we can all access the community and social services programs that we need – not years from now, but today – and we will not back down.”

JP Hornick, OPSEU/SEFPO President

“Workers have tried to get the wages that were stolen from them at the bargaining table, but employers don't have the money. Growing waitlists, families without proper services, and workers turning to food banks – this is the Ford government's mess and it is their responsibility to fix it. It is absolutely unjust that this government has cherry picked certain groups of workers to make whole while continuing to ignore the workers who take care of Ontario families, support people with autism, protect children, and provide the unseen but critical labour of our care economy. These workers will not be ignored any longer because their jobs and their services are worth fighting for.”

Fred Hahn, CUPE Ontario President

Campaign website: worthfightingfor.ca

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CONTACT: Jolene Cushman, OPSEU/SEFPO Communications Ontario Public Service Employees Union / Syndicat des employés de la fonction publique de l'Ontario (OPSEU/SEFPO) 416-518-2368 ... Jesse Mintz CUPE Ontario 416-704-9642 ...

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