1970s

In this decade, OPSEU organizing moves into the ambulance sector. Further organizing takes the union to Children's Aid Societies, Associations for Community Living, school boards and child treatment centres. This new “OLRA” group brings fresh ideas to the union. It isn't an organization that they inherited, that has always been part of their workplace; it's something they have gone out and organized because they need workplace representation.

1971

• Changes to the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA) require 65 per cent card signing for an automatic certification – producing more bitter organizing drives.

• CSAO organizes community college faculty.

• CSAO now has 325 “branches” (not locals) that include all government workers in an area, regardless of occupation, ministry or worksite. Branch members have little in common and can do little collectively about problems they do share. Branches, in effect, are low-level social clubs.

1972

• The Board fires Bowen, leaving CSAO without its top leader. A special general meeting re-instates him, but only for the seven months until he reaches 65.

• Passage of the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act (CECBA) happens while CSAO is busy with its own internal crisis. The law includes 21 non-negotiable management rights including pensions and most workplace rules. All disputes are to be settled by arbitration. There is no incentive for the union, its leaders, or its members to take direct responsibility for bargaining.

• CSAO begins its campaign for CECBA reform, which is to last 20 years

1973

• In February, CSAO staff strike (illegally), essentially in support of the General Manager. Ordered to return to work or be fired, 14 cross picket lines and 36 are fired. A handful of the fired are reinstated because they supported the organizational changes, if not the means used to initiate them. The staff strike and the firings create a break in institutional culture and open the way for major changes.

• Jake Norman is hired as General Manager.

1974

• Free the Servants campaign takes the first serious run at CECBA, at cost of $600,000. CSAO demands the right to strike and political freedom for civil servants. It's high profile, public and flashy.

1975

• (Right) The organization makes the change complete and becomes the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). A new democratic structure has Convention delegates elect the president for the first time. They choose Charles Darrow. The vice-president/treasurer's job becomes full time, and the seven-region structure is written into the new constitution. In a move to assert membership control of the union, the board abolishes the position of general manager. Jake Norman, prime architect of the new OPSEU, is gone.

• (right) The new union gets a new logo, a stylized trillium enclosed in a triangle formed of three lines – which don't meet at the bottom. The lines are said to represent the three sectors of the union - the OPS, the colleges and the broader public service. The lines won't meet until the union gains the full right to strike for OPS members. The slogan Modern, Loyal, Efficient is gone.

• (Right) A group of women activists in Region 5 start meeting informally as the Region 5 Women's Caucus. It's the precursor of the Provincial Women's Committee.

• Federal Wage and Price Controls (the Anti-Inflation Board) put the brakes on new bargaining strength and strategies. The program lasts three years.

• Government implementation of the “Henderson Report” starts the mania for cutbacks and contracting out. First up: 1,000 jobs. Highway sanding and plowing are to be contracted out, psychiatric hospitals in Goderich and Timmins closed, four health labs sold to private sector, 2,000 hospital beds closed. OPSEU responds quickly with community campaigns involving interest groups, the Ontario Federation of Labour, churches and social workers.

1975 - 1980

• The number of government jobs is cut from 87,000 to 80,000.

1975 - 1982

• OPSEU sponsors the provincial Peewee Hockey championship, donating the OPSEU Cup to the winner. It gives the union a high profile on the sports pages, where unions don't usually get much mention. The organization finally withdraws from this sponsorship because Convention determines that hockey is almost entirely a boy's sport. The union didn't want to be sexist in its sponsorship.

• (Right) OPSEU First Vice-President Ev Sammons presents the OPSEU Cup May 1992 at Maple Leaf Gardens Peewee Hockey Championship.

Free Servants Rally

Free Servants Telethon linked CSAO  members across the province

Charlie Darrow President 1975 - 1978

The new union gets a new logo

Women's Caucus Region 5 - 1975

 

OPSEU First Vice-President Ev Sammons presents the OPSEU Cup May 1992 at Maple Leaf Gardens Peewee Hockey Championship.