The following is a template Local 454 members at Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services can use to send a personal letter or email to Rideauwood board members.

member_letter_to_rideauwood_board.docx

{Day, month, 2018}

Dear Rideauwood Board Member {board member name};

I am an employee of Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services, and a member of Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 454. 

I am writing to advise you of an urgent situation that threatens our ability to offer quality treatment and care to your clients and community. 

I have been working for Rideauwood for {number of years} years, and I take great pride in the work I do. Helping families overcome addiction is important to our entire community – we’re on the front-lines of the opioid crisis.

But poor working conditions and precarious terms of employment are preventing my co-workers and me from offering the best possible care. To address these issues, we joined OPSEU a-year-and-a-half ago and have been attempting to bargain our first collective agreement ever since. 

Our bargaining team has met with Executive Director Marion Wright and her management team 24 times, but they refuse to bargain in good faith. They refuse to agree to provisions that  workers in other treatment centres across Ontario already have, including:

• Seniority in layoffs
• Our right to be represented in disputes over insured benefits.
• Fair wages

Why are these particular issues so important to us? Because without them, it’s impossible for us not to feel undervalued, disrespected, and taken advantage of. How can we do our best work under these conditions? We’re only asking for contract provisions that many other treatment centre workers already have.

But because of Wright’s refusal to bargain fairly, we are now heading towards a potential strike in the spring. We do not want to interrupt the treatment and care upon which so many families and children depend. But in order to provide quality treatment and care, Rideauwood’s workplace issues must be addressed.

I urge you to send your bargaining team back to the table with clear instructions to negotiate a fair and just contract.

Sincerely,

{board member name}

Cc: Marion Wright, Executive Director Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services