FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 28, 2005
OPSEU charges McGuinty over air ambulance privatization:
“What else are they hiding?”
TORONTO -- The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has charged the McGuinty government with “bad faith bargaining” for failing to disclose plans to privatize Ontario’s air ambulance services.
OPSEU has learned that the decision to privatize Ontario’s air ambulance service was made at a provincial Cabinet meeting last December, long before contract negotiations began in earnest.
This is the second such charge in the current round of bargaining for 42,000 government employees. The Ontario Labour Relations Board previously ruled that the government violated labour law by failing to provide the OPSEU bargaining team with other changes now being implemented by numerous ministries.
OPSEU President Leah Casselman said the government continues to treat its employees callously, as did the previous Tory government. “Liberal MPPs tell our members they want labour peace in this province, but this certainly isn’t the way to get it. It’s like Mike Harris is back at the bargaining table,” she said.
Casselman said privatizing air ambulance dispatch is another indication that McGuinty is continuing the Tory agenda of destroying public services. Air ambulance dispatchers respond to 17,000 calls per year and are responsible for all air ambulances across Ontario, from transfers to hospitals for life-saving surgery, to
on-scene accident response. The unit is also responsible for organ transplant retrieval across Canada and into the United States.
OPSEU’s chief negotiator, Terry Baxter, said the failure to disclose the air ambulance plans is also troubling, because “if the government refused to disclose this information even though the Labour Board told them they’re legally obligated to do so, what else are they hiding?”
OPSEU members working for the Ontario government have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2004.
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For further information contact:
Terry Baxter, OPSEU Chief Negotiator: 416/591-2303
Don Ford: OPSEU Communications: 416/448-7442
