LONDON, TORONTO - The Ontario Public Service Employees Union will use legal means to achieve a fair collective agreement for local paramedics, hoping to avert a labour crisis after the City of London intervened to torpedo a tentative deal.
OPSEU will ask the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to step in now and support members of Local 147, who thought they had a deal until last week. The City of London chose the last moment to scuttle the agreement, which would have brought salaries of local paramedics into line with those in nearby jurisdictions such as Essex, Kent and Lambton,
who now earn up to $7 per hour more.
The City’s action infuriated local paramedics. “We negotiated a contract in good faith with the employer. It’s outrageous that the City can blow up the process at the last minute and ruin months of hard work,” said Leah Casselman, OPSEU President. “This is wasting thousands of taxpayers’ dollars by dragging out the process, and playing havoc with
employee morale.”
Both the County of Middlesex and the employer, Thames Valley Emergency Services, had approved the tentative deal, which would have spread pay increases out over three years.
“Our members are livid. If Thames Valley paramedics’ wages are not brought into line with those of surrounding jurisdictions, these trained and experienced professionals will inevitably find better paid work and more appreciation elsewhere, especially after this slap in the face,” said Casselman.
The parties cannot apply for interest arbitration unless they are in a strike position, according to the Ambulance Collective Bargaining Act. The union will ask the OLRB to determine in advance that it will order arbitration rather than waiting for the parties to be in a strike/lockout situation.
The union represents 150 paramedics in London and Middlesex, without a contract since September 2003.
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For further information, please contact:
David Cox, OPSEU Communications, 1-800-443-8888 x 314
