Ontario disability care strike enters months-long stretch, pushing families into crisis

Linda Umlauf has structured her days around her 28-year-old non-verbal autistic daughter Nicky since the London, Ontario, group home where Nicky lived shut down in May as social and community service workers struck.

Mondays at the beach, Tuesdays for shopping and swimming, a packed schedule around her daughter's interests and need for routine. But as months of strike action have dragged on, Nicky has become increasingly confused and frustrated, sometimes lashing out physically at her parents—biting her mother, attacking her father when especially distressed. The couple now retreat to a locked "safe room" in their home during her aggressive episodes.

"We really don't do anything other than look after Nicky," Umlauf said, sobbing. "And we just miss our friends."

Her family is one of many caught in a deepening crisis. Approximately 4,000 community, health, and social services workers across Ontario—social workers, shelter staff, developmental service workers—have been either on strike or locked out since the spring. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union says striking workers are demanding more funding for their sectors and retroactive wage increases.

Union president JP Hornick said workers are living paycheque to paycheque, some standing in food bank lines alongside their clients. "It's been a very slow suffocation effect of funding for these sectors," he said. The union has alleged that workers have been "stonewalled" by Premier Doug Ford's government, with Conservative MPPs refusing to meet with striking constituents or affected families.

In October, the province's financial accountability office predicted a $1.5 billion funding shortfall for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services in 2025-26, widening to $2.4 billion in 2026-27 and $3.1 billion in 2027-28. The union is inviting employers and the provincial government to the bargaining table; Hornick said talks have been "a tricky issue."