Dilico strike a result of high case loads

Nearly 380 Dilico Anishnabek Family Care employees on strike have been picketing at six locations, including Nipigon, Longlac, Marathon, White Sand First Nation, James St. in Thunder Bay and at Dilico’s head office at Fort William First Nation, since July 8 when the strike began.
Candace Lavalley, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 70, highlighted three main concerns which employees are seeking resolution for during the strike.
High case loads, unfair salaries and hours when on-call, and poorly run overtime are the main concerns of picketers, she said.
“We’re looking for our employer to lower the case loads. We have many committed social workers who cannot cope with the cases,” Lavalley said. “The average case load per worker is twenty-five… That means twenty-five families and all their children.”
Social workers must visit each family at least once a month.
Lavalley says that workers are “petrified” to take days off because of extremely high levels of paperwork expected regularly of them. Due to the overloaded schedules, Lavalley claims employees are not able to perform their jobs adequately.
“There’s no social work going on here,” Lavalley said of Dilico. “All they’re doing is putting out fires.”
Lavalley was certain to emphasize that the strike does not have financial motives.
“This is not about money,” Lavalley said.
Lavalley says that she and the 380 other Dilico employees on strike hope to resume talks with Dilico soon. She hopes that they’ll come to a conclusion that will satisfy all.
“An ideal would be for Dilico to call us back to the table to discuss some of these issues,” Lavalley said. “The ones suffering are our Anishnabek children.”
Since the strike commenced, visits between parents and children have been delayed and cancelled.
Picketers will continue striking daily until an agreement is created between Dilico and the union.