2000s

•  In May, the water supply of Walkerton is contaminated by E. coli bacteria, which leaves seven dead and thousands made ill. The toll includes OPSEU member Betty Trushinski, a dietary services worker at the South Grey Bruce Health Centre. The tragedy highlights cuts to public services. The Ministry of the Environment had cut more than 900 staff, and eliminated 80 per cent of water sampling stations. OPSEU insists on (and gets) whistle-blowing protection for members who testify at the inquiry into how it happened.

• A strike in London against the Salvation Army's community living program prompts the union to seek and win an injunction against the organization for intimidation and surveillance.

• OPSEU uses the Health and Safety Act to bring charges against the Ministry of Natural Resources over a shipment of plutonium from the U.S. to Chalk River.

• OPSEU's annual convention celebrates 25 years as a union.

• OPSEU gets an agreement for 1,100 ambulance paramedics working for 41 ambulance services across the province. They had taken a strike vote to further bargaining, and were facing downloading to municipalities in 2001.

•  Hospital health care professionals in 42 Ontario hospitals ratify a three-year deal covering about 5,000 members. The agreement includes a committee to raise awareness of the group's work and its importance in health care.

• More than 60 municipal councils pass resolutions opposing private prisons, despite pressure from the government saying the decision would mean no further ministry investment in their communities.

• OPSEU demands that the Ministry of Labour close the courthouse in Newmarket until all toxic mould is removed, particularly after judges were relocated when they refused to work in the mouldy courtrooms. Ten days later the courthouse is closed.

• About 200 home care workers with the Hamilton- Wentworth Victorian Order of Nurses strike over low pay, as they lose trained workers to other employers. The VON settles after 33 days for a sixper- cent raise over three years, their first increase in a decade.

• Shortly thereafter the Hamilton-Wentworth Community Care Access Centre staff strikes. This agency coordinates the home care programs in the Hamilton area, including the work of the VON. They also are bleeding staff to surrounding agencies. They reach a tentative deal after nine weeks. These two strikes highlight the problems in home care.

• The late Paul Robeson, a black singer, actor and human rights activist, receives the Humanitarian Award in the year of his centenary.

• Mike Harris announces a 42 per cent wage hike for MPPs, compared to the 2 per cent limit imposed on other public service wage increases. Casselman slams the ideas as obscene and bone-headed.

2001

• Workers at Syl Apps Centre for young offenders in Oakville vote to keep OPSEU as their union after the government privatizes the operation to Kinark Youth Services. Local 213 is President Casselman's home local.

• It turns out that no Canadian companies are qualified to run the private superjail in Penetang under the government's terms of reference. The contract goes to a Utah firm.

• A CAS workload study confirms a union report that heavy workloads put children at risk. OPSEU has about 2,000 members in 17 CASs.

• OPSEU and four other unions launch a pay equity challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They argue that the government is perpetuating sex discrimination by underfunding public services.

• Stephen Lewis, former Ontario NDP leader, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, and currently U.N. special envoy on HIS/AIDS in Africa receives the Stanley Knowles award.

• The government introduces changes to the Public Service Act to make privatization easier, allow delegation of authority outside the public service and create new categories of temporary staff. They also allow the Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) to organize more than 2,000 OPSEU members who are civilian employees of the OPP. The OPPA was a major backer of the Harris Tory government.

• Staff at Kennedy House Youth Services in Uxbridge (formerly the St. John's School) authorize a strike when the new private employer demands severe cuts to the contract at the young offenders' facility. In response, the employer locks them out. The lockout will last more than a year.

• Canadian Blood Services members in Hamilton back a strike vote to back demands for their first contract. OPSEU represents the majority of laboratory technologists in Ontario and all Hamilton lab techs. There is a provincial shortage of skilled technologists. It takes a one-week strike to get a settlement, which addresses blood safety as well as providing wage increases.

• A mouldy court-house in Etobicoke is closed following a staff walkout.

• North Bay locals organize a local Public Service Fair with speakers from Concerned Walkerton Citizens, Citizens Against Private Prisons, OPSEU’s bargaining team and the Ontario Federation of Labour. They march on local MPP Mike Harris’s office and make a presentation to the local food bank. It’s preparation for the 2002 round of OPS bargaining.

• Sept. 11, two hijacked planes fly into the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, another hits the Pentagon and a fourth crashes in a field. The world’s priorities and perceptions are changed dramatically in an instant. But in some ways, the attack clarifies the importance of public services and makes it easier to discuss their value.

• The Ontario government lays off the last five scientists with expertise in life-threatening biohazards. OPSEU demands they be reinstated and that the government look to bio-terrorism response in a serious way.

• OPSEU demands safety procedures for mail workers handling suspicious packages after a series of scares involving white powder in the Queen’s Park mail room.

• The government starts to privatize driver testing and licencing, and OPSEU raises public safety concerns. After a prolonged battle, the privatization goes through and British-based SERCO takes over the work.

• Ambulance dispatch workers start raising the issue of fewer staff to handle the calls. They are paid significantly less than fire and police dispatchers, which regularly poach ambulance dispatchers once they have the training.

• OPSEU goes into the next round of OPS bargaining under the banner of Rebuilding Public Services after 6.5 years of Conservative cuts, layoffs, privatization and mismanagement

2002

• In January, three OPSEU members and a manager are killed in a helicopter crash north of Sault Ste. Marie while doing moose surveys. OPSEU calls for a full inquiry.

• Liberal and NDP MPPs pledge to support renewal of the OPS. The union promotes whistle-blowing protection as part of its campaign for renewal.

• Food safety becomes an issue supporting bargaining as the government has cut full-time meat inspectors to eight from 150 in 1996. All 20 Farm Products Inspectors are gone. • March 1 – OPS members vote 88 per cent to give the bargaining team a strike mandate. The turnout is 71 per cent.

• March 13 – More than 45,000 OPS members are on strike. Essential and emergency services continue. Correctional facilities lock out the essential and emergency services. The strike is to last eight weeks.

• OPS members rally outside Tory leadership convention April 2002

• Workers in 21 CASs, represented by OPSEU and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, file en masse for conciliation. Issues include excessive paperwork, not enough time to help children, and heavy caseloads, as well as basic economic matters.

• OPS members rally outside Tory leadership convention April 2002

• The discovery of thousands of confidential patient records abandoned in a former part of Whitby Psychiatric Hospital raises concerns over public safety and confidentiality of records. • Dr. Sima Samar, an Afghani doctor and activist named deputy premier of the new government in Afghanistan, received the Humanitarian Award. • About 2,500 court workers, considered essential during the strike, rally for justice across the province. Various groups in the OPS arrange media coverage to highlight the work they do and the problems they face on the job.

• The Ontario Federation of Labour organizes a Solidarity Day in at least 22 cities. Later there is a women's solidarity event.

• Ernie Eves is elected Tory leader and succeeds Mike Harris as premier. OPSEU calls on him to listen to his staff and settle the strike.

• May 2 sees a tentative settlement to the OPS strike. It maintains employeescontrol over pension surpluses, boosts wages and improves job quality for the 26 per cent of members on temporary contracts. Members ratify the contract on May 5 and most return to work May 6.

• The Convention takes a serious look at the union's strike fund, which had begun the OPS strike at $27 million but was depleted during the eight weeks. Delegates agree to a special dues levy to rebuild the fund to $30 million in two years.

• In August, OPSEU sues the government over delays implementing the negotiated wage increases.

• Correctional Officers at the private superjail in Penetanguishene vote to be represented by OPSEU.

• Workers at a pallet manufacturer in Eastern Ontario vote for OPSEU, as the union moves into the private sector.

• Workers in the Hospital Professionals Division vote by 91 per cent to do “whatever it takes” in escalating job action to win improved wages and working conditions, and to reduce long hours and overtime. They provide diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitation services.

• OPSEU releases a report entitled Reality: Ontario's Mental Health Care System Isn't Working which spells out many deficiencies in the province's approach to mental illness.

OPS members rally outside Tory leadership convention April 2002