Last fall, the CMHA Ontario membership elected a bargaining team to negotiate our next collective agreement. In the spring, we asked for you to help us understand the issues in our workplace that were most important to you, which were then presented to you as our Demand Set for approval.
Since that time, the team has been hard at work to deliver on our commitment to secure an agreement that we believe meets the needs of everyone employed by CMHA Ontario.
We’ve spent nine days negotiating. But now, we need your help.
There are only two circumstances in which a bargaining team can approach the membership to ask for their input: (1) with a tentative agreement which is presented to the membership for ratification, or (2) after filing for conciliation which also involves taking a strike vote.
Tentative Agreement & Ratification Vote
When the bargaining team is satisfied with the agreement we’ve bargained, we can sign what is called a tentative agreement, which can then be presented to the membership.
Signing a tentative agreement signals our approval of the agreement to the membership, which means that the team waives our rights to point out anything in the agreement that we don’t like.
At a ratification meeting, the agreement is presented to the membership and we hold what is called a ratification vote. The membership votes whether to accept the agreement as presented or to send the bargaining team back to the bargaining table to continue negotiating.
Conciliation & Strike Vote
While we have worked hard to negotiate, we have been unable to come to an agreement with the employer about specific issues that we believe are too important to give up on! To help us, we have applied for conciliation, a process in which the Ministry of Labour appoints a neutral, third-party individual (a Conciliator) to act as a mediator to help the parties come to a mutually satisfactory agreement.
As part of the process of conciliation, we need to involve the membership in our decision-making by way of a strike vote.
At a strike vote meeting, we will provide detailed information on the outstanding issues, including any language the team has proposed and the employer’s responses.
The Vote
Once the team has presented on the issues, the membership answers some very important questions by way of a vote. The questions you should consider include:
- Are the issues presented as important to you as we think they are?
- How hard do you want us to work to negotiate these issues?
- Are you willing to take job action if, despite conciliation, the employer is not willing to compromise?
There are two ways a member can vote in a strike vote:
If a member believes the issues are so important that they want the bargaining team to continue to negotiate and are willing to consider job action to pressure the employer to meet the demands, they are encouraged to vote ‘Yes’ in the strike vote.
If a member does not feel strongly about the issues as presented and is not willing to consider job action, they are encouraged to vote ‘No’ in the strike vote.
Only one strike vote will occur during the bargaining process and it will be occurring on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Whether you care deeply about the issues the bargaining team presents or not, it is incredibly important to show up to the meeting to have your say in what comes next by casting your vote!
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the bargaining team will proceed to conciliation and work with the conciliator to improve the agreement.
Conciliation is an important tool that can help move negotiations forward – but it is most successful when the bargaining team knows that the membership cares about the outstanding issues, and that’s what the strike vote is: a high ‘yes’ vote gives us a strong strike mandate. That mandate is a tool for increasing our leverage in the bargaining process, not a desire to go on strike. The vast majority of units with a strong strike mandate will come to an agreement during conciliation because the employer knows that the membership cares about the outstanding issues and supports the bargaining team.
If the result of the vote is a very weak strike mandate or the majority of members vote ‘No’, the employer will know that we do not have the support of the bargaining unit and there is a strong likelihood that the collective agreement that has already been negotiated will be very close to the final version.
In other words, we get the collective agreement for which we are willing to fight.
For more information about the issues we will be presenting on Tuesday, February 10, please download the following resource!