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Less than 24 hours after the Ontario
Public Service Employees Union offered to extend its contract with the
Government of Ontario to put on hold any increases to wages and compensation,
the McGuinty Liberals have served notice that they want to begin negotiations
that will likely produce drastic cuts.
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas
said McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan have now shown their true
colours despite their public rhetoric on “pushing the pause button” on public
sector increases.
“There is no ‘pause button’ for this
government,” said Thomas, “they only want to hit ‘rewind’. With the legislation
they are proposing, it means one thing, and one thing only. They want to strip
apart our collective agreement in ways that Mike Harris could only dream of
nearly 20 years ago.”
The proposed “Protecting Public Services
Act” would allow the government to basically write their own contract with
employees and force it down their throats, Thomas said.
“Absolutely no meaningful bargaining can
take place if this Act becomes law,” said Thomas. “The government knows this.
The only reason for the government to want to come to the bargaining table is to
demand concessions, cuts and pave the way for privatizing and selling off public
services. Right now, our collective agreement is the only barrier that prevents
the dismantling of public services in this province.”
Thomas demands that the government scrap
the proposed law and allow real collective bargaining to take place as it should
under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“We are well aware of the economic
realities here,” Thomas said. “No one is looking for a pot of gold. We are
informed, reasonable and realistic. But this attack by the Liberal government
comes before we have had one meeting or even placed one single proposal on the
bargaining table. The stench of desperation off this government is obviously
clouding their judgement. We invite McGuinty to take a real pause, back off this
half-baked legislation, and allow negotiations to take place that will benefit
workers, citizens and genuinely protect our public services.”
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More informationn:
Warren (Smokey) Thomas: 613-329-1931
Don Ford, OPSEU Communications: 416-448-7442
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