TORONTO – Front-line workers in the Ontario Public Service have ratified a three-year collective agreement with the Ontario government.

In province-wide voting March 24-26, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union voted 82 per cent in favour of accepting the Central agreement signed March 18. Voter turnout was 61 per cent, with over 29,500 employees voting out of a total bargaining unit of 48,000.

Vote results in the six wage categories were as follows:

• Administrative  87%
• Correctional  63%
• Institutional & Health Care   82%
• Office Administration   86%
• Operational & Maintenance   83%
• Technical   81%

"OPSEU members should take a great deal of pride in what has just happened," said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. "Collective bargaining is very stressful at the best of times, but when the boss is as anti-worker as this government, it is even more so.

"We faced an uphill battle against concessions from the very start," said Casselman. "Through hard work and determination we made it to the top. We forced this employer to withdraw its plan to slash wages through the Bargaining Unit Overhaul; we killed their demand for short-term layoffs; we protected seniority rights; and we slammed the door to favouritism when we stopped their ‘pay-for-performance’ scheme.

"We not only beat back the takeaways, we also made decent progress on early retirement, faster justice on grievances, time off for local presidents, and the first wage increases since 1993," she said. "Best of all, we were able to accomplish all this without a single day on the picket line.

"This is a clear victory for the hard-working people who provide the public services that hold our communities together. Congratulations to all of us."

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