That gift card was a nice touch.
But then it was taken away.
Once upon a time, in a period more amicable I suppose, workers providing service delivery for Community Living Renfrew County South were given a $100 gift card at Christmas, courtesy of management.
This is an enlightened and positive example of how creative and thoughtful management can keep morale humming in a workplace, especially one where the workers appear to make less money than their public service counterparts across the province. So in that sense, the gift card represents to me a management that’s interested in the well-being of its staff.
With around 92 workers, that gift card also represented a pat on the back for the workers, rather than the kick in the pants they’re getting now.
Because in the Christmas season of 2025, the gift card was discontinued without explanation.
There it was, gone.
People can speculate all they want as to the reasoning and the timing of this move by management. That’s what people do when there’s no information put out by that same management as to why the card was pulled for this past Christmas season.
So I’ll just ask a simple couple of questions, not meaning to offend anyone.
Why was the gift card pulled? And who came up with that idea?
Fair questions, those. Are there any answers? And if so, can we have them? Who would know those answers? And how come they don’t say anything about It?
I’ve said before that we’re judged by our words and deeds, but it’s our actions that seem to say the most about us. I’ll argue that if your actions come across as vindictive and spiteful, then there’s more than a reasonable chance that people are going to judge you as being vindictive and spiteful. It’s kinda the way it goes.
It’s fair for people to look at the timeline in the background of that decision. OPSEU 472 had been without a contract for going on two years, the last one expiring in March 2024. As the second anniversary of that date approached, perhaps there was a sense in management circles that the union local was going to start job action at some point to put pressure on the agency to come to the bargaining table and hammer out a new contract. The workers had been stuck making 2024 dollars when everyone else around them was getting retro-active pay as part of the Bill 124 remedy as well as raises. OPSEDU 472 saw none of this and, no doubt not satisfied with perceived management foot-dragging, took a strike vote that resulted in a 100% vote for job action. As a result, the union local has been picketing and running information pickets for the last six-plus weeks.
Given the timing, is it fair to suggest that the gift card was pulled out of spite? Would it be reasonable to maybe interpret it as a shot across the union’s bow? Was it the first volley fired in what is now a full-fledged strike? Was the card-pull a way to intimidate the members of Local 472? Or could it have simply been an example of managerial distemper? Perhaps even pettiness?
In the absence of any sort of words of explanation, we’re left with only the action. And if actions speak louder than words, then what is this saying to us? What are we to make of this?
It is, unmistakably, a rather petty-looking piece of work given the timing and the context. I know people who will take offence to these questions, but they remain legitimate questions. Perhaps legitimate answers might make this whole thing look better in the optics department.
It appears we have a group of people not used to challenge or criticism who may have presumed that their role in all of this is above reproach, and therefore above scrutiny. They feel that their positions somehow insulate them from legitimate questions asking for clarification and rationale that would back-up and give meaning to their actions and decisions. When faced with these questions, they appear to be quick to anger, and quick to take offence.
Again, being challenged when you’re not used to it, when you’ve had a free reign for years, can be tough, and maybe that explains what appears to be the bruised feelings over at Fort CLRCS.
To them, it’s not fair that people would want to bring management’s behaviours, past and present, into the public light.
And it may have them rattled.
Too bad about that gift card, though. That was a nice touch.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 