KINGSTON, ON – Workers on strike for a deal that ensures they can provide high-quality, reliable and accessible services for clients of the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) will be joined on the picket line tomorrow (Friday) by colleagues from CHS Belleville, as well as community supporters and labour allies from Kingston.
They will be sporting the colour green in honour of St. Patrick’s Day and in support of a fair contract for CHS workers, who are on strike at 24 CHS offices across Ontario. The local CHS office is located inside Frontenac Mall.
After four years without a collective agreement, CHS workers are determined to preserve the things that allow them to perform their stressful and demanding jobs at levels that best serve the members of Kingston’s deaf, oral deaf, deafened and hard of hearing communities.
In particular, workers’ sick leave and health plan, negotiated over a period of 40 years, are under attack. CHS wants to gut the benefits that were originally intended to break barriers and help the predominantly female workforce cope with work that is mentally, emotionally and physically challenging.
Local 2073 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents 227 workers at CHS offices in Ontario. Members of CUPE 2073 work at CHS as counsellors, literacy instructors, audiologists, speech language pathologists, interpreters/interpreter trainers, clerical support, program coordinators, program assistants, and information technology specialists.
CHS’s office in Kingston employs five workers and in Belleville, three.
Who: Workers from the Canadian Hearing Society in Kingston, community supporters,
and labour allies
What: Picket line rally for striking employees of the Canadian Hearing Society
When: Friday, March 17, 12 noon
Where: Frontenac Mall, 1300 Bath Road, Kingston, near the intersection of Centennial
For more information, please contact:
Christine Lang, CUPE National Representative, 705-927-8599
Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839
