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Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services
announces its schedule for closing the province’s three remaining regional
centres for people with developmental disabilities by March 2009. OPSEU
launches campaigns in Smiths Falls, Blenheim and Orillia, rallying with the
parents of residents who file a class action lawsuit.
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OPSEU goes to Divisional Court to reverse the Tory decision to
close the College des Grands Lacs. A coalition of francophone groups also speaks
out against the move.
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OPSEU welcomes Bob Rae's recommendation for increased and more
stable post-secondary education dollars, and for more full-time faculty. But
quality will be undermined if college part-timers are not allowed to join the
union, OPSEU says.
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A court orders the Ontario government to pay a total of $1.2
million in damages to 50 employees who were stripped of their rights during the
process of privatizing three young offender facilities. The court upheld an
earlier decision by the Grievance Settlement Board that each of the affected
employees should be paid damages equal to two weeks salary for each year of
service. The City of Ottawa vetoes OPSEU transit-shelter ads critical of Premier
Dalton McGuinty's record on public services. The city relents after protests
from the Ottawa Labour Council.
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The OPSEU Rainbow Alliance goes on record in support of same-sex
marriage, saying that not allowing same-sex couples to marry violates the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights Code.
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Leah Casselman is re-elected OPSEU president for a record sixth
term at the 30th annual OPSEU Convention in April. She was first elected
president in 1995. Warren (Smokey) Thomas of Kingston is elected for a third
term as the union’s First Vice-President/Treasurer.
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St. Joseph's Health Care of London-St.Thomas agrees to pay out
more than $2 million and rescind layoffs to settle a two-year overtime dispute
with its mental health staff. The hospital must also sign a new scheduling
arrangement that had been proposed by OPSEU at the beginning of the dispute.
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On May 25-27, OPS members vote 65 per cent to reject a contract
offer from the McGuinty government and to give their bargaining team a strike
mandate. The turnout was 66 per cent of the 42,000-member bargaining unit. A new
OPS contract is reached on June 11 with wage increases totaling 9.75 per cent
over four years.
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After a long negotiation, support unit workers with Canadian
Blood Services vote 67 per cent in favour of a new collective agreement that
give the 850 workers a three per cent increase in each of three years, plus
improved benefits and better job security provisions.
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5,400 members of the Ontario Liquor Boards Employees Union vote
to merge with OPSEU, forming the OPSEU Liquor Board Employees Division. On July
27, they vote 83 per cent to accept a new four-year contract with the LCBO that
includes better protection against privatization.
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6,500 support workers reach a tentative agreement with the
community colleges on Sept. 2. A three-year agreement expiring Aug. 31, 2008
includes a three per cent staged wage increase in each year.
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Staff at the Ambassador Bridge Duty-Free Store in Windsor strike
on Sept 2. The 45 students at the University of Windsor want a longer term of
employment then one year. The settlement reached Sept. 26 includes a 12-month
contract extension, an immediate wage increase of between eight and 14 per cent,
and a signing bonus of $1,000.
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Probation and Parole Officers and employees of the Ontario
Parole and Early Release Board (OPERB) rally at Queen’s Park Oct. 13 to protest
a government plan to transfer Ontario’s parole system to the federal government.
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OPSEU announces a campaign to make unionization legal for 16,000
part-time college employees. Ontario is the only province in Canada that legally
bars part-time college employees from union membership.
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OPSEU members at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in
Toronto, one of OPSEU’s largest locals, ratify a new contract with 89 per cent
voting in favour of the new collective agreement.
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In a massive turnout Nov. 21, almost 9,000 North Bay citizens
voted to reject private (P3) hospital in the recent plebiscite. 97 per cent
supported the proposition: "I support a North Bay and District Hospital that is
100 per cent non-profit, publicly owned and publicly operated."
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OPSEU and other Ontario health care unions launch a
province-wide advertising campaign to push the Ontario government to make
safety-engineered medical sharps mandatory. This would prevent 33,000 injuries a
year in Ontario and save millions of dollars in related health costs. OPSEU
develops a new website: www.saferneedles.ca Region 5 Vice-President Terry Downey
is elected Executive Vice-President of the Ontario Federation of Labour at its
biannual convention in November. Downey was an employee of the Ontario Human
Rights Commission for 17 years. Meanwhile, former OPSEU activist Ethel LaValley
retires after 10 years as OFL Secretary-Treasurer.
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In late November, OPSEU joins three other unions representing
almost 200,000 Ontario health care workers in a fight against the Liberal
government's plan for Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). The plan
divides the province into 14 regions and introduces the competitive bidding
model for health services. Despite protests and a million-dollar ad campaign,
the LHINs plan passes into law in February, 2006.
