THUNDER BAY -- Picket signs remain up in front of the Canadian Hearing Society office in Thunder Bay.
A contract settlement was thought to be on the horizon when both sides went back to the table last week, but after four days, the negotiations came to a halt on Saturday.
CUPE Local 20-73 represents more than 200 hundred Hearing Society employees across the province, including a half dozen at the Thunder Bay office inside Victoriaville.
The offices have been closed and many of its services suspended since March 6, when the strike began.
Greg Eybin has been deeply affected. Not only does he work for the Hearing Society, but he is also a client.
He says he hopes the agency can stop only focusing on profit but instead look at what's fair for the community.
“It has impacted me personally. We’ve always had agreements, we’ve always been able to work things out and accommodate one another, but unfortunately we haven’t,” Eybin said through an interpreter.
“It’s impacted me, it’s impacted my family and the deaf community, which I am a part of and we are seeing the lack of privilege and access to things like jobs and we’ve had to accommodate our personal lives to accommodate the system.”
According to CUPE members, one of the main issues is the agency wanting to change their previous policy in regards to sick days.
There's no word on when the contract talks might resume.
(TBT News)
