Morale remains strong as members of OPSEU Local 598 began their fifth week on the picket line at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan today.

OPSEU president Leah Casselman joined the strikers to deliver a strong message to their employer, OTPP CEO Claude Lamoureux.

Claude, your pension plan does not work without these people,” she said, using a bullhorn to call up to Lamoureux’s office. “We want you to show them some respect at the bargaining table.”

Local 598 president Andy Kayser
 

            Casselman noted that the pension plan paid Lamoureux $5.5 million for his services in 2005. “This is one employer who cannot cry poor in bargaining,” she said.

     Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, urged the strikers to hold their ground. “In my experience, if you don’t plant your feet and take a stand,” he said, “the employer will just take and take and take.”        

  OPSEU president Leah Casselman with Andy Kayser

 Local 598 president Andy Kayser called on OTPP managers working inside the building to consider the message Lamoureux was sending them. “He’s saying, ‘We don’t care about the culture that managers and staff have built,’” Kayser said. “This strike will end, and we will be back at work, and you can thank your CEO and President for putting a wedge into the workplace that wasn’t there before.”

    OPSEU Region 5 Board Members Nancy Pridham, David Rapaport, and Peggy Maybury also joined the picket line today.

Still drawing a crowd

OFL president Wayne Samuelson