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On Strike: Ernie: you're not getting our pension money
April 30, 2002
Street party in Oshawa
President Leah Casselman attended a spontaneous event in Oshawa on Monday. Local 340, at the Michael Starr Building, has been hit with a long series of injunctions limiting picketing. The most recent virtually bars all picketing at the building, which is on the south side of King
Street.
Members arrived early from Region 5 and assembled near the Post Office. (A van leaves the Post Office every morning for the Starr Building with the day’s tax receipts for the revenue arm of the Ministry of Finance.)
Leah stood amid a group of Region 5 members and read the most recent injunction, to explain where they could picket, who could picket, and when they could picket.
As she was explaining, a crowd gathered outside the Post Office. Members needing stamps to write their MPPs about bargaining?
When Leah finished reading the injunction, the members marched in an orderly fashion to the north side of King, opposite the Michael Starr building. About 500 members, friends and supporters turned the march into an impromptu street party, on the side of the street where they were
legally allowed to be.
Local 340 President Kathleen Demareski and Leah did a worksite inspection at the Ministry of Finance, and later the courthouse, as members jumped and rocked to the sounds of “We’re not gonna take it” and “We will rock you.”
Leah told the crowd members of the bargaining team have contacted cabinet ministers who haven’t been told the truth by their own team.
Also at the rally were OPSEU’s Broader Public Sector chairs. Dave Calvert, representing OPSEU’s BPS sector, pledged the continuing support of the BPS members for the OPS members on strike.
Workplace deaths linked to strike
Several recent deaths should be a warning to the Ontario government to negotiate a quick end to the OPS strike, said President Leah Casselman.
“The deaths of two construction workers in Toronto and an inmate at Millbrook Correctional Centre Friday should be a flashing red light to this government that it’s time to start negotiating seriously,” said Casselman. “Those deaths might have been avoided if we hadn’t been forced
out on strike. It’s time the government backed off its vicious demands for concessions and made some positive moves.”
Casselman made the comments April 28, the International Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job.
“The Ministry of Labour’s way of dealing with workplace deaths is to say that they have nothing to do with the strike and that everything is just fine,” said Casselman. “It isn’t.”
Casselman pointed to problems related to several recent workplace deaths:
• The government sent managers from the Ministry of Transportation and the Pay Equity Division of the Ministry of Labour to investigate the death of Duane Yonge, who died April 22 when he was crushed in a press at the Dana Victor plant in St. Thomas.
• Steelworkers in northern Ontario have complained that the investigation of the death of Roch Lamirande, who died April 4 at Placer Dome Canada’s Musselwhite Mine, near Pickle Lake, was rushed and perfunctory.
• Workers on the scene of two fatalities at a condominium construction site in Toronto Friday have said that the Ministry of Labour has not been inspecting the worksite on a regular basis since the OPSEU strike began.
“Time and time again we’ve seen this government look the other way when life-threatening decisions were being made,” said Casselman.
“The impression that is left is of a government that just doesn’t care,” she said. “We continue to wait for some indication that Ernie Eves is different from Mike Harris.”
Want to reach Ernie? Here’s how:
Ernie@ErnieEves.com
163 First Street, Orangeville, ON L9W 3J8
Phone: 519-941-1255 Toll-Free: 1-866-225-3837
If you are going to Orangeville to picket Eves’ office or to get involved in the campaign, give Tim Little a call. That way the local campaign will know you are coming and can plan for your participation.
Tim’s cell number is: 416-540-7003
The Ernie Page
Talking to Ernie: It’s about pensions
by Chris Madill, Region 3 vice-president
A Guelph flying squad has been chasing Premier Ernie and his election crew around Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey.
On Saturday, eight members in three communities made contact with the elusive candidate.
At the Valu Mart in Erin, I asked why it was so important that he have control of the employee share of the pension fund surplus? He stumbled for an answer.
I reminded him that 88 per cent of the members had rejected this notion weeks ago. He said his team had improved its offer again this week, and I asked if that meant he had removed any of the concessions.
I said that we didn’t go to the table to give away what we already had in exchange for nothing, and that our unclassified issues had to be part of any settlement.
A member’s wife explained to him how the cuts have affected her family. Ernie promised he would look into the pension issue. Paul Hughes of Local 233 told Ernie to back off on the pension and cuts to benefits, and get a handle on what was really going on at the table.
Outside Subway, two other members chatted to Ernie about Kevin Wilson, benefits, pension and unclassifed issues.
In Grand Valley, Ernie shook hands on the west side of Main Street, while on the east side, members wearing “Remember Walkerton” signs handed out leaflets and talked to people about public services.
Ernie heard more about Kevin Wilson, the pension, benefit and unclassifed issues.
In Shelburne, other OPSEU members kept hammering the message home - to bring integrity to the management side of the table and end the strike.
As Ernie was leaving, Paul gave him a copy of the Real Deal and asked him to read it.
Sunday, Ernie went missing. Members waited and searched but there was no sign of him. His campaign office opened for about ten minutes, but when the OPSEU cars arrived, they locked it up and went home.
North Bay sighting
Ernie was in North Bay on Friday, reports Region 6 vice-president Will Presley.
He met pickets at the local candidate’s office, and chatted with a couple who reported he had nothing to say.
Despite the radio broadcasting false information as to where he was to make an announcement, OPSEU pickets found him. He refused to come and talk to us, but both radio and TV did come and talk.
Doubly bad news on pensions
As finance minister, Ernie Eves changed the MPPs’ pension plan. Because he ignored warnings, it will cost taxpayers a bundle.
Perhaps Ernie should be reminded that while he is attempting to shaft OPSEU over its pension plan, he is also shafting the taxpayer over the MPPs’ pension plan.
Escape artist
Dear Mr. Eves,
As the Simon and Garfunkel tune goes, “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio.”
Where have you gone, Mr. Eves? OPSEU workers and the OFL were looking for you Friday. Your staff at Orangeville couldn’t find you either. Did you forget about the by-election?
You are quickly showing that Mike Harris is not the only escape artist posing as premier. Come out and face your citizens and special interest groups (unions).
So much for the kinder, gentler premier.
Joe Perretta, president, Local 202
Airing dirty laundry in Orangeville
The Ontario Coalition for Social Justice is planning a line of Tory dirty laundry in Orangeville, where Ernie Eves is seeking election to the legislature.
The event happens at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at 125 First Street, in Orangeville.
The idea is that people bring a piece of what they consider Tory “dirty laundry.” It could be an issue or slogan written on an old t-shirt or pillowcase or diaper. or an image drawn or glued onto an item of clothing.
The contributions will be pinned onto a laundry line and strung up in a visible location. People will be encouraged to talk about their contributions to the Tory Dirty Laundry Line.
Benefits unaffected by strike
This is from the “Benefits Q and A” on the OPSEU website, which answers a wide range of questions about benefits for members involved in the OPS strike.
What insured benefits (basic life insurance, supplementary and dependent life insurance, dental, supplementary health and hospital including drugs, vision care and hearing aids, and LTIP) do we have while we are on strike?
Your benefit coverage remains the same as when you were at work. OPSEU negotiated an agreement with the employer to allow OPSEU to pay for your coverage. Therefore, you still receive your benefit coverage without incurring any out-of-pocket costs.
Government ignores public safety
from 310 Pen
On any given day, there are about 80,000 offenders, including adults and young offenders, serving sentences in Ontario. About 85 per cent of them are under some form of community supervision order.
That means about 70,000 offenders are in Ontario neighbourhoods. There are fewer than 700 Probation and Parole Officers responsible for monitoring these offenders in our communities.
Ontario officers have the highest caseloads in Canada. Many have been supervising caseloads of well over 100 individuals for years (as high as 175 at times).
This is dangerous math.
Probation and Parole Officers cannot provide the diligent supervision of these offenders that the government is claiming in their strict discipline-tough on crime statements.
Our employer has allowed the corrections system to completely collapse during this strike.
They have closed over half of the Probation and Parole offices in the province. Less than 25 per cent of correctional facilities have trained staff inside the institution - inmates are escaping and violence within the institutions is increasing.
Fertilizer spill
The strike may have delayed the environment ministry in alerting two municipalities about a potentially hazardous fertilizer spill, according to Steve Nield, a member of the central bargaining team.
“There obviously was a problem,” said Nield. “One can only assume that was a result of staffing issues.”
A 20,000-litre chemical fertilizer spill on April 18 is believed to be responsible for the closure of the water treatment plant in Brooke-Alvinston.
The spill occurred near Brown Creek, in Warwick Township. Brown Creek feeds into the source of Brooke-Alvinston’s drinking water. Samples from the Creek had more than three times the acceptable level of ammonium nitrate, a key component in fertilizer.
Regular patrols might have prevented inmate death
An inmate death at the Millbrook Correctional Centre might have been prevented if correctional officers had been allowed in the facility to perform essential services duties during the strike.
The inmate died of an apparent heart attack in the night.
Logbooks viewed by union officials show that managers running the facilities are not doing regular patrols throughout the night, said Tim Hannah, president of Local 341.
“If we had not been locked out since March 20, correctional officers deemed essential would have been doing patrols every 30 minutes throughout the night,” said Hannah. “A trained officer could have provided emergency first aid and CPR. But with the lockout, management is not doing
the patrols.”
2002 strike is about union busting
from Queen’s Park Picket Line
The 2002 OPS strike will be defined by the success or failure of the employer’s plan to bust the union.
The Queen’s Park PICKET LINE has no doubt that the employer is using this strike to try and reduce the OPSEU bargaining unit to a shell. The government has made a sustained effort, using their advantage in resources, to destroy morale on the picket lines and break our strike:
• More than 130 labour board orders and court injunctions have been issued to restrict picketing since the strike began. That’s apparently a record for Ontario.
A memo from Management Board Secretariat, dated April 22 and signed by Malcolm Smeaton, chief bureaucrat in charge of ‘Contingency Planning’ for the OPS, orders OPS managers to set up evening shifts (3 to 11p.m.) to accommodate strikebreakers.
The memo calls on managers “to provide maximum flexibility to [OPSEU] bargaining unit staff who chose to come to work … most employees will require only a minimal management presence for the evening shift.”
An April 24 memo signed by Dorothy Mahoney, a director at the Ministry of Health, confirms these instructions and goes one step further. Her memo states that strikebreaking “is an important initiative designed to achieve key corporate objectives” [emphasis in original].
It is clear that the government is prepared to put public health and safety and public services at risk to achieve its goal.
One note of optimism in all this. Managers and AMAPCEO members alike are reporting that the employer’s ability to paper over the cracks and carry on “business as usual” is breaking down.
Small wonder, since maintaining the façade requires redeploying managers all over the place and requiring some managers to work 18-20 hour days.
Plus, to their credit, most managers and AMAPCEO members that we talk to, are sickened by this vicious attitude toward OPSEU members.
Call your councillor
Danielle Chilton of Local 521 says that the city of Toronto is not being fair to strikers.
The city has a policy of assisting those in financial need to gain access to recreational programs and facilities.
But the city is refusing to accept OPSEU members for the program, basing their eligibility on annual income rather than on the hardship of living on strike pay.
She urges members in Toronto to call their city councillors and to apply for the Welcome Policy.
Tension release takes a creative turn
Claudette Kocmut from the Crown Attorney’s Office in Windsor (Local 154) submitted this poem, written by Gail, one of her colleagues.
OPSEU on strike April 24, 2002
I arrived to find them gathered,
Around every entrance there,
The strikers were assembled,
Tension was in the air!
Essential workers were the targets,
No work for them today,
They were greeted with a note in hand,
Go home is what they had to say!
One look at her and to defy,
Was not a thought at all,
I continued to drive right on by,
Given my instructions to make a call.
To my boss, who would not be happy,
And me, well I felt forlorn,
I just want to get back to normal,
And do a job I enjoy and get paid for!
So home I went feeling emotionally drained,
Needing something to relieve my stress,
I searched through boxes, books and things,
And came up with the best!
The picture of a beautiful quilted kitchen curtain,
Was certainly a sight to behold,
The creative juices starting flowing,
This was medicine for my !
I sewed all day and into the night,
Tucked away in my own little room,
I was in complete control of my space,
Material flew through the machine - vroooooommmm!
I love my little rolling four - patch valance,
I can’t wait to get it up,
It will always be a reminder,
Of days when it was getting tough…
Check the web: www.opseu.org has the latest on everything.
Original approved for publication by Leah Casselman, President
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