OPSEU members in Local 269 at the Hamilton-Wentworth Victorian Order of Nurses are heading toward a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Aug. 31.

Their campaign for quality home care services may have a bigger impact on another deadline: Sept. 7. That’s when the Mike Harris Tories may just learn that they’ve lost one of the seats that holds up their slim majority in the Ontario legislature.

“It was a difficult, gut-wrenching decision for V.O.N. staff to vote for a strike,” said Local 269 president Lois Boggs. “The 95 per cent vote in favour of strike action is not just about our wages or our agency. We are sounding the alarm that if the wages, benefits, and the workload of community workers does not improve there will be no one left to provide care should you, your family or your friends need it.

“Our strike vote is a desperate plea to the Conservative government to improve funding for community nursing. We must ensure that there is adequate staff to provide quality home care.”

The OPSEU members’ plea is hitting home with watchful voters in the riding of Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Aldershot. Liberal and NDP candidates and the news media have helped put quality home care front and centre in the by-election campaign.

OPSEU home care events are now hitting the headlines every day.

On Aug. 22, over 60 Local 269 members and supporters from Local 274 (home care staff at the Community Care Access Centre - Hamilton-Wentworth) picketed Tory candidate Priscilla DeVilliers’ campaign office.

On Aug. 23, about 70 members and supporters attended an all-candidates’ meeting in Ancaster.

On Aug. 24, close to 150 OPSEU members and past users of home care services rallied at CCAC offices. Liberal candidate Ted McMeekin, NDP candidate Jessica Brennan, and Hamilton Mayor Bob Morrow were all on hand. Liberal MPPs Domenic Agostino and Marie Bountrogianni spoke emotionally of their own personal experience with the high quality of care provided by V.O.N. nurses. For pictures of the event, click here.

The V.O.N. and OPSEU are in mediation this weekend, hoping to bargain a contract before the deadline. V.O.N. nurses have not had a wage increase in 10 years.

In the mean-time, the campaign continues.

Monday, Aug. 28: Public meeting at Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main St., Hamilton, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 29: Founding meeting of citizen coalition for better home care, 6:30 p.m., Hillcrest Banquet Hall, 510 Concession Street, Hamilton.

OPSEU will apply today for the right to participate fully into the Public Inquiry into the Walkerton tragedy and Ontario’s drinking water system.

The law firm of Gowling, Strathy and Henderson will deliver the union’s application for standing to the Toronto offices of the Commission of Inquiry this afternoon.

“OPSEU members know more about Ontario’s drinking water than any other organized group in the province,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “We are optimistic that we will be able to achieve standing and put forward our members’ knowledge and experience.”

OPSEU represents approximately 1,090 employees at the Ministry of the Environment; 557 at the Ontario Clean Water Agency; over 700 at Grey Bruce Health Services; 85 at the Bruce Grey-Owen Sound Health Unit, including the Walkerton Public Health Unit; over 100 at the South Bruce - Grey Health Centre, Walkerton’s hospital; and 85 Ontario Public Service workers in Local 225 in Walkerton.

OPSEU and other applicants for standing will make oral presentations before the Commission Sept. 5-6.

OPSEU members’ knowledge about drinking water and public health are key elements in the union’s application, but the union can also bring other perspectives to the Inquiry, Casselman said.

“As a union, we know a tremendous amount about health and safety that relates to communities as well as workplaces,” she said. “We know that true ‘isolated accidents’ are few and far between. We have long experience and a lot of expertise in taking a systemic approach to health and safety issues.”

The application quotes Nancy Johnson, a former MoE investigator laid off in 1998 after 20 years of public service:

“I can’t count the times I’ve seen the initial blame in an environmental incident placed on the unwitting worker at the end of a long chain of unfortunate decisions and actions that, in combination, set him up to push the button on the culminating event. My instincts tell me there are parallels in Walkerton.”

Many thanks to all the members and staff who contributed to today’s application.

Paramedical staff at the Niagara Health System have voted by a decisive margin to join OPSEU.

The vote, counted Thursday, means OPSEU will represent 488 staff at the Health System, created when eight Niagara Region hospitals merged. The new bargaining unit includes x-ray technologists, physiotherapists, and other health care professionals.

OPSEU outpolled the Canadian Union of Public Employees by a 5-to-1 margin.

“The decision of these workers confirms, yet again, that OPSEU is the union of choice for hospital paramedical workers in Ontario,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. We know their work and we have the expertise and commitment to give them top-flight representation.”