FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 18, 1999 OPSEU goes to members for OPS strike vote TORONTO -- The union representing Ontario government employees is going to its members for a strong strike vote to support contract talks with the provincial government. "We still hope to get a new collective agreement without a strike, but there is only about a one per cent chance that we could get a collective agreement without a strike vote," said Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. Click here for complete text of remarks "From what we've seen in two months of bargaining, the government seems determined to fight the last strike all over again. Many of their proposals are the same ones we rejected in 1996." Foremost among those is a demand that the government be allowed to lay off employees on a short-term basis for up to six months, with two weeks' notice. "As working people, we do not have the luxury of not paying the rent and not paying grocery bills during these short-term layoffs," Casselman said. "We are demanding real jobs for every worker in the OPS, and we aim to succeed." The government has also taken aim at existing temporary contract workers, who make up 22 per cent of the Ontario Public Service. At present, those "unclassified" workers are eligible for conversion to full-time, "classified" jobs after two years' service. Under a government proposal, they would never be converted -- but they could be terminated. "This is the Ontario government's vision for Ontario workers: temporary, troubled, or terminated," said Casselman. "If the government has its way, there will be two kinds of workers in the public service: those who have jobs, but no work; and those who have work, but no jobs. "We are not making any more sacrifices for this government," she said. "We gave at the office. We gave in the jails, we gave on the highways, we gave in the forests, we gave in the courts, and we gave in the psychiatric hospitals. We've sacrificed enough." Since its election in 1995, the Ontario government has cut the equivalent of 18,000 jobs from the public service, and plans to push that total to 30,000 over the next two years. "This government has no mandate to destroy the public service," said Casselman, "and we're not giving them a mandate to destroy the jobs of working people." - 30 - FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
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