‘We’re all in this together,’ OPSEU president tells striking NOSM workers
August 23, 2010
SUDBURY – OPSEU president Smokey Thomas told striking workers at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) today that they can expect the solid support of their union regardless of how long the walkout continues.
"OPSEU is one big family and organized labour is a big family," Thomas told more than 50 members of Local 677 on the picket line at NOSM’s campus at Laurentian University in Sudbury. “We’re all in this together.”
Thomas visited the striking administrative, clerical and technical workers who are now in their second week off the job in a labour dispute with the school of medicine. His message was that they should settle for nothing less than the respect and fairness they’re looking for – and deserve – in a first contract.
“No self-respecting union would ratify the so-called ‘deal’ your employer has put on the table,” said told the cheering workers,” Thomas said, before departing for a flight to Thunder Bay where he was scheduled to speak to striking NOSM workers at Lakehead University.
Outstanding issues in the dispute include work hours, contracting out, benefits, family leaves and overtime.
Region 6 vice president Sue Brown told the striking workers that OPSEU “will walk should-to-shoulder with you.
“Stay solid; stay strong and you will win. You’ll be a much happier group when this is over.”
Local 677 bargaining team chair Tyler England said NOSM workers were off the job “for all the right reason” and he paid tribute to their determination to stand up to a management team “that doesn’t give us the respect we deserve.”
Striking demonstrators on the picket line were also joined by John Closs, president of the Sudbury and Region Labour Council, representing 15,000 workers in the area.
He told them that organized labour fully supported their demands.
“We’ll be there when you need us,” he said, adding that he expected a show of support for NOSM workers at the city’s labour day parade and picnic on Sept. 6.
