1960s

1960

• Canadian Federation of Government Employee Organizations (CFGEO or “C.F. George”) succeeds the earlier Canadian Council of Provincial Employee Associations and is equally ineffective. It dies in 1972.

1961

• The provincial government creates a separate Department of the Civil Service.
  

• CSAO ends its co-operative buying function to focus on bargaining efforts.
  

1963

• Changes to the Public Service Act replace the JAC with an Ontario Joint Council with four reps from CSAO and four from government to “negotiate” matters on its agenda, with arbitration should they fail to agree. The changes also tighten the screws on political activity.

• The politicians insist that senior managers no longer belong to CSAO. The organization is starting to become a grouping of front-line workers.

• Miffed by a low arbitration settlement and delays in processing raises, truck inspectors in Toronto- Hamilton hold a three-day work-to-rule that snarls traffic and produces a four-per-cent raise. Members are starting to get a taste of direct action to achieve contract goals.

1964

• Federal NDP leader David Lewis is featured speaker at the CSAO convention. This is a big step toward developing a political identity. Doubled dues allow the organization to hire researchers, educators and grievance officers.

1966

• CSAO registers as a union with the Ontario Labour Relations Board enabling it to organize in the private sector.

• When the old Provincial Institute of Trades is moved to the new community colleges, CSAO organizes support staff in the college system. Most of them had been CSAO members as part of the government workforce. The far-flung college system poses new challenges and marks the end of running the whole union operation out of Toronto. It also forces CSAO to deal with more than one employer.

1967

• CSAO beats out CUPE to represent staff at the Niagara Parks Commission – newly independent from the Civil Service – and negotiates its first ever collective agreement. At this point there is still no formal collective agreement for the OPS members

• Agriculture department staff, transferred to the University of Guelph, rejoin CSAO and wind up on strike – CSAO's first, and the first for any Ontario university. They strike again in 1969. Despite student support, this one goes badly and the group later leaves CSAO.

• The North Bay CSAO branch takes the first equal pay case to the Human Rights Commission demanding equal pay for nurses to male attendants in the psychiatric hospital. They lose.

1968

• The first contract for college support staff is signed.

• The province takes over county jails, and CSAO moves in to take over those guards from CUPE. CSAO has always represented the staff of provincial “reform institutions.” This strengthens the correctional group in the union.

1969

• The government acts on a key report by Judge Walter Little and excludes managers, professionals and confidential staff from CSAO. CSAO gets dues check-off for all members and new hires. The dues check-off does not mean these people have to become members of the organization, but it ensures a degree of financial stability to the organization by ensuring they pay dues. In effect, it brings the Rand Formula to the OPS.

• CSAO stops operating the Queen's Park cafeteria (after 42 years) and cancels recreational activities and the annual Christmas choir concert to focus on bargaining.

• CSAO staff unionizes.

• CSAO organizes its first group of “hospital paramedics” – technologists at Peterborough Civic Hospital. This forms the basis for a group initially known as the OLRA division, and now the Broader Public Service (BPS). It was the start of major organizing among hospital workers, now called “hospital professionals” to avoid confusion with ambulance workers.

Equal Pay Demonstration

Women Protest

Queen's Park Health Demonstration

1964 Executive - Civil Service Association of Ontario