FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE April 3, 2006
Staff at Ontario
Teachers’ Pension Plan could strike April 22
TORONTO – Over 200 unionized
staff at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan will be on strike
April 22 if negotiations don’t result in a new collective
agreement before then.
Sticking points in talks so far
include wages and hours of work.
“The underlying issue in these
negotiations is whether management recognizes that the work of
our members is fundamental to the overall success of the
plan,” said Brock Suddaby, negotiator for Local 598 of the
Ontario Public Service Employees Union. “If management
continues to its ‘father-knows-best’ approach to bargaining,
we will have a strike.”
OPSEU members work for the plan
in the investment, member service, IT and administrative
departments,
In January, union members voted
85 per cent in favour of strike action to get a deal. Voter
turnout was 86 per cent.
“Our employer had $14.1 billion
in income from investments in 2005,” said Suddaby. “Staff
costs are less than one per cent of that, and of that one per
cent, a lot of it goes to salaries for top managers.
“The president’s Long-term
Incentive Plan alone would more than cover the gap between the
two sides at the bargaining table,” noted Suddaby.
Claude Lamoureux, President and
CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, was paid $5.5
million in 2005, up 22 per cent from 2004.
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For more information:
Brock Suddaby (647) 225-2453
Andy Kayser (416) 939-0947
