The Toronto Star covered our press conference, but it is paywalled. If you have a subscription, read the story here.
Otherwise, we’ve posted it below:
TORONTO STAR: Toronto community and seniors housing workers vote for strike mandate over workplace violence concerns
Front-line workers with the Toronto community and seniors housing corporations have voted “overwhelmingly” for a strike mandate over concerns about workplace violence and understaffing.
Support staff with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation (TSHC) said at a press conference Friday they have repeatedly reported unsafe working conditions. The concerns include offices without functioning security cameras, inadequate emergency responses and a rising number of assaults, threats and harassment.
Jennifer Mitchell, who works with TCHC tenants facing eviction, told reporters she and her colleagues have been put in dangerous, sometimes life-threatening situations by their employer.
She described having to be alone in rooms with people who have a history of violence, including a registered sex offender.
“I work alone,” she said. “I love my colleagues, we love our work, but there’s not enough of us. When I enter a building, I’m there by myself. We become very vulnerable.”
In July, one of Mitchell’s colleagues “almost died,” she said, when a tenant struck her in the head with a metal rod before trying to run her over with a car.
“She was by herself,” said Mitchell. “She had to deal with that on her own.”
Now, her injured colleague has something else to fear, said Mitchell — a reduction in medical benefits. During collective agreement bargaining over the last two months, the city has sought to pare down worker health benefits, according to her union.
TCHC did not dispute this nor explain why when asked by the Star.
“The health, safety and well-being of CUPE Local 79 members — and all TCHC staff — remains our highest priority,” said spokesperson Kimberly Moser in a statement. “TCHC leadership is listening and is taking action because we agree that all staff do tremendous work in supporting tenants.”
Local 79 president Nas Yadollahi said at the conference that TCHC “denies” that a staffing problem exists. Although she could not provide the exact number of workplace vacancies at the company, she said they were “significant.”
TCHC did not respond to a request for comment about staffing levels.
Understaffing is not listed as a concern in the corporation’s budget documents from last year. Instead, finances were.
“TCHC faces long-term financial instability resulting from misaligned funding, structural challenges, inflationary pressures, cost increases, enhanced tenant support needs, and an increasingly difficult operating environment,” the document reads.
In the TCHC, 98 per cent of its roughly 800 workers voted for the mandate. With the TSHC, 94 per cent of its approximately 90 workers voted for the mandate.
Both organizations are represented by CUPE Local 79. In March, tens of thousands of Local 79 members in other city divisions nearly went on strike before an eleventh hour deal was reached.
On Thursday night, the union filed for a “no-board” report from the province’s labour minister. After the report is issued, which the union said is expected to be in the coming days, there will be 17 days until a strike or lockout could begin.
TCHC workers voted for a strike mandate in 2021, the last time their collective agreement was up for negotiation, but did not strike.
The city’s community housing serves nearly 105,000 tenants. More than 15,000 people live in Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation managed buildings.
If a strike were to happen, the 24-hour call centre these organizations maintain for tenants would no longer be answered, Yadollahi said, and rent processing could be disrupted.
Both the union and employer said they hope a deal can be struck.
“We’re confident that if we continue to work together with our union partners, we’ll get a fair and respectful deal for everyone involved,” said Moser.