FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 22, 1999

Stop Cheating the Staff at the AGO

TORONTO – OPSEU Local 535 will welcome Ken Thomson and other AGO Board members at the opening of the Kreighoff Exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario with a Kreighoff inspired "Merry Making" party:

Art Gallery of Ontario
Monday November 22, 1999
6:15 p.m.,
317 Dundas St. W.

OPSEU members will greet the AGO Board members dressed as the destitute habitants used in many of the Krieghoff paintings. It promises to be a lively event with music and visuals. OPSEU members will tell the Board members: "Krieghoff painted The Cheating the Tollman. We want you to stop cheating the staff out of a decent contract."

OPSEU Local 535 is in negotiations at the Gallery for a new contract. Negotiations have been slow. OPSEU Local 535 voted in early November by more than 95% to strike.

Management’s current offer is filled with claw backs on wages, job security and cuts to benefits. Gallery management offered a zero per cent increase for three years effective from ratification. "In effect, this is a four-year wage freeze because the contract expired in November ’98," says Lenny Fridman, Local 535 president. "And on top of it, management is using unpaid volunteers to do our work".

The message on Monday evening is: Enjoy the Krieghoff opening, but give the staff a fair and reasonable offer.

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For further information:

Katie FitzRandolph: OPSEU communications – (416) 448-7440 or cell 561-5651
Jim Bourke, OPSEU Local 535 – 979-6660 ext. 497
Jan Borowy, OPSEU Campaign Officer cell: – 723-1695 

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