FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 12 2002
Strike imminent in Ontario Public Service
TORONTO – Forty-five thousand Ontario public service workers will be on strike at midnight tonight unless the government returns to the bargaining table with immediate and dramatic changes to its latest offer, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says.
“Usually calling a strike is a difficult decision, but in this case it is very straightforward,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “The key features of the government’s central offer are unchanged from the one that 88 per cent of our members rejected at the end of February.”
The employer is still demanding major concessions and has rejected union proposals aimed at rebuilding a public service shattered by nearly seven years of cuts, layoffs, and privatization, Casselman said.
“After Walkerton, after the Andersen consulting fiasco, after scathing provincial auditor’s reports, the Mike Harris government still hasn’t grasped that there is a crisis in Ontario, and that it’s a crisis in public services,” Casselman said. “We say it’s time to rebuild, and the way to do that is to support the
hardworking people on the front lines of public service delivery,” she said.
Among several major concessions, the government is demanding that OPSEU members give up their legal right to use surpluses in the $10-billion OPSEU Pension Trust to fund pension improvements. The government has not moved from its original attacks on contract workers. Over $10 million in benefit cuts are also on the
table.
“You can’t have a strong, accountable public service if you don’t recognize the work of the people who are the foundation of the public service,” Casselman said.
“We are disappointed to find out that, after nearly seven years in government, the Mike Harris government has not been able to learn this simple lesson.”
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For more information:
Katie FitzRandolph (416) 448-7440; (416) 788-9057 (cell)
Randy Robinson (416) 448-7441; (416) 788-9134
David Cox (416) 443-8888 ext. 314; (416) 788-9197 (cell)
