This week, we proudly recognize and celebrate the compassion, dedication and strength of Developmental Support Workers (DSWs) across Ontario. As frontline workers, you play a vital role in enhancing the quality of life of individuals with developmental disabilities. With your compassion, your skill and unwavering commitment, you provide support, advocate for inclusion, and ensure dignity for the people you support.
Your tireless work doesn’t go unnoticed. You are the heart of care, the champions of equity, and the steady support that so many individuals and families rely on every day.
But appreciation isn’t enough and you deserve much more than gratitude. Chronic government underfunding and systemic neglect of the developmental services sector frustrate your efforts to offer the best quality care for the people you support.
One of the greatest blows to you and your work was delivered by Bill 124, the Ford Conservatives’ wage suppression law for public sector workers. Even while a pandemic raged, inflation surged and your workloads intensified, Bill 124 held your wage increase to 1% for three years.
In 2022, a legal challenge by CUPE Ontario and other unions overturned the Bill. Then the fight for back pay began, as some public sector workers received it and others didn’t. Many social service workers, including developmental support workers, have been shut out.
We will not let the Ford government divide us into Bill 124 winners and losers.
Now is the time to fight for justice, recognition and fair compensation.
Together, CUPE and OPSEU/SEFPO represent most developmental support workers in the province. With your support and engagement, we will soon launch Worth Fighting For, a campaign that demands retroactive wage catch-ups for DSWs and other social service workers and more provincial funding for what you do every day.
It’s a coordinated campaign aimed directly at the Ford government, and it’s built around coordinated, cross-union bargaining, mass organizing, and members’ participation.
When thousands of workers move together, we can’t be ignored.
You’ll hear more about Worth Fighting For in the next few weeks, as we work toward bringing thousands of workers together to create the power to win. In the meantime, you’re encouraged to go to Worth Fighting For to learn more and sign the unity letter.
CUPE Ontario and the Social Service Workers Coordinating Committee wish all DSWs a happy Developmental Support Workers Appreciation Week!
