I’m not privy to the internal communications or deliberations of either party involved in the labour dispute between Community Living Renfrew County South and OPSEU Local 472, but feel I have a credible inkling of how the union’s invitation to talk late last week was received by the agency’s leadership.

My information is that Executive-Director Jennifer Lavallee did respond to the invitation.

If I’m correct, she indicated a willingness to return to the bargaining table, and even suggested that she’d do so even if representation from the funder, specifically identified by her as the Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services, was not available or unwilling to attend.

I view this as a positive step.  To do otherwise would have been a significant political error.

I hope for the best, but regrettably, I also feel a certain fear for the worst.

Cynicism will do that to a person.

Today at noon marks the deadline for a potential CLRCS response to OPSEU 472’s invitation to join them in mediated bargaining talks beginning this coming Monday.

The hope comes from the fact that I view the union’s invitation to be a legitimate and positive step towards moving this labour dispute along the road to possible resolution and reconciliation.  It’s an attempt to break the impasse.

The fear comes from an acquired cynicism that I’ve developed over the years towards managerial tactics in collective bargaining situations.  There’s also a deeply-held and legitimately-earned suspicion of government intentions around this whole issue.

It may be a sign of something, perhaps even a sign of something good, maybe even encouraging.  Or depending on the response to the initiative, it may turn out to be just another part of the journey, a journey that’s been tough for almost all concerned.

OPSEU Local 441 in Brockville and Local 472 here in Renfrew/Arnprior have called for for all parties to their current labour dispute with LLGAMH — Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health — and CLRCS — Community Living Renfrew County South — to return to the bargaining table on July 13, 2026. 

For OPSEU, the reference to meeting in Toronto may mean some involvement of the union’s provincial executive.  On the management side, well, that’s where it gets interesting.

Because as far as the government and LLGAMH, and by extension our very ownCLRCS are officially concerned, the government has nothing to do with any of this, and it’s the arm’s-length agencies that are solely responsible for bargaining.  If that’s true, then how do you kick this can upstairs on the management side when, by their accounting, there’s no upstairs to kick it to.

But there is.

It’s called the Ontario provincial government.

CLRCS Executive-Director Jennifer Lavallee has indicated in an email blast that she has informed both OP{SEU 472 and the ministry-appointed conciliation officer of her intent to return to the bargaining table, that is if she was ever truly at it in the first place.

But who is this conciliation officer and where are they?  And what exactly, if anything, do they actually do to advance the state of negotiations between the two parties of the dispute?

It’s important to note that management’s assertion notwithstanding, the parties actually returning to the table depends on both sides agreeing to resume negotiations and on whether they believe meaningful bargaining can occur. Public statements like this expressing a willingness to bargain do not, by themselves, establish that either side is bargaining in good faith. That depends on the parties’ conduct at the table and the proposals they are prepared to discuss.  But to establish that, we need to see them at the table.

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.

I’ve stated before the enormous cost incurred by somebody to pay replacement workers $4/hour more than striking workers while having their meals, lodging, and transportation all paid for, a situation entering its seventh week.

I’ve also pointed out the hiring of security guards and private investigators, another group having their wages, meals, lodging, and transportation costs all paid for.

The question I have is a simple one:  Paid for by whom?

It appears CLRCS’s Executive Director Jennifer Lavallee is feeling the heat.  In fact, it appears the Board of Directors is feeling the heat as well.

Go figure.

Lavallee peppered the email inboxes of some community members and supporters with a statement indicating that she is entirely flabbergasted by the “campaign” she claims has been launched at OPSEU’s request, a campaign reliant upon the input of what she describes as a “questionable” source.

I guess that would be me.

The government of Ontario would have us believe that the labour dispute between Community Loving Renfrew County South and its workers represented by OPSEU Local 472 is strictly and exclusively a matter between the employer and the employees.

Which of course is a laughable attempt at a smokescreen.

What we are actually seeing is the weaponization of essential public service delivery for exclusively partisan political objectives. It’s a Conservative thing.

The labour dispute between between Family Living Renfrew County South and OPSEU Local 472 has been noticeable to local residents primarily due to the picket lines and the visibility walks implemented by the union.  It’s hard to ignore the flags, the chants, and the blaring horns of supportive motorists passing by.

Nobody, I’d venture, is in the mood to be doing any happy honking at the people exclusively responsible for all of this on the management side, particularly the executive director and her enabling Board of Directors.

People and passers-by see strikers.  They’ve seen those strikers for five weeks already, with a really hot sixth week already two days in.  They think that’s a long time.  Too long of a time.  And they begin to start asking questions.  Questions around what the hold-up is, and who might be responsible.

They see strikers on a work action in its sixth week.

And they wonder just what the hell is going on.

I went to a barbecue on Friday.

I caught wind that members of OPSEU Local 472 were having a get-together at the splash pad over at Ma-Te-Way.  There was talk of a barbecue.  This is the kind of thing, the prospect of free burgers, that has me coming over the neighbour’s fence every time.

And so I crashed the party.

And despite the fact that I’m largely unknown to these people, they had no problem with me milling about with them.  Hell, they even fed me.