More help from the the government needed?

Beware the artificial government crisis at hand -QJ

For the past decade, the province has increasingly moved residents out of provincial institutions and into community facilities. Just 500 adult residents remain in three institutions – in Orillia, Smiths Falls and Chatham – and those are being closed by March 2009. More than 40,000 adults with developmental disabilities are now in some form of community care, ranging from help to live on their own or with roommates to group homes and long-term care homes. Approximately 7,000 unionized workers are employed in those community facilities and half, at some 70 locations, are working under contracts that expired March 31.


Labor woes trouble homes for developmentally disabled James Wallace Queens Park - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 By James Wallace Osprey News Network A looming, province-wide labour dispute at agencies that serve developmentally disabled adults could see care jeopardized for thousands of Ontario’s most vulnerable adults, union officials in the sector say. Meanwhile, the $200 million government bailout intended to stave off strikes or lock-outs at group homes, agencies and other community facilities that provide care for adults with developmental disabilities may be fatally flawed, said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario. Workers in the sector have been frustrated for years over chronically low wages, Ryan said. And despite the recent funding announcement, both CUPE and Ontario Public Service Employees Union locals representing some 3,500 workers report recent strike votes of 95 per cent and higher. “We’re trying to head off labour unrest,” Ryan said. “These are of course, we all know, the most vulnerable of people; people with mental disabilities other disabilities that need a lot of help.” People who work with the developmentally handicapped may typically earn $35,000 or less annually and 25 per cent less than workers doing similar jobs in hospitals, the union maintains. Meanwhile, there is a $10-an-hour gap between the wages for not-for-profit and government staff that do the same work. Ryan said unions and the agencies that provide care urged the government during pre-budget discussions to find the $200 million needed to address wage disparities in the sector.