Strike News Coverage
Newspaper stories from across OntarioSudburians relieved OPSEU strike over: Many lives were put on hold during work stoppage, as people couldn't renew licences, get divorced
The Sudbury Star
Fri 03 May 2002
Both strikers and members of the public needing government services welcomed news that a bitter seven-week strike that pitted 45,000 public workers against Ontario's Tory government may be over.
"I was ecstatic," said Renee Raymond of Sudbury, on hearing news that negotiators for the province and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union reached a tentative agreement early Thursday.
Raymond is seeking a divorce so she can remarry. She needs to finalize her divorce first, but the process has been delayed because many court workers in Sudbury have been on strike.
"Everything has been in limbo," she said.
Raymond said she was told that the strike would have to end by the second week of May in order for her divorce papers to be issued in time before her June 8 wedding. If, as expected, government workers are back on the job Monday, she should able to get her paperwork in time for the wedding.
The strike affected Filippo Rocca of Sudbury in two ways. Rocca needed to validate his driver's licence and apply for a health card.
He said his international licence expired in late April. He was waiting to see if his working visa would be extended before he applied for a permanent driver's licence and health card.
However, once he got word that his working visa was extended, the strike had begun.
Rocca said he was nervous that he would be fined if he continued to drive, so he called Greater Sudbury Police. Police told him that if he was stopped, the officer should understand his situation.
"I had to go to work," he said.
When news about the tentative deal reached Sudbury, a courthouse management employee came out to the OPSEU picket line to hug strikers.
The strike has disrupted court services from time to time and created tension in Sudbury District Jail and Cecil Facer Youth Centre.
Sudbury lawyer Ted Conroy said he knows many of the strikers and was happy to see the strike ending.
Huge backlog awaits striking OPSEU workers
The Sault Star
Fri 03 May 2002
TORONTO -- Thousands of government workers will soon return to their jobs but it will likely be some time before services return to normal, as workers combat the huge backlog of work that accumulated during the eight-week strike.
An end to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union strike will connect Manuel Soler's driver and vehicle licensing office back into the province's mainframe, but it will also present his staff with the daunting task of inputting all the data they've been recording by hand during the strike.
It also means customers who were turned away because of the strike will soon be returning to renew their driver's licences or complete a used-vehicle information package.
"Hopefully, there won't be a rush. We are asking people to take it easy and not come in on the first day (after the strike ends)," Soler said.
"My employees will be overworked. We will have to work late evenings, and Saturdays and Sundays until we get all the information into the system, after days of serving people."
The situation will be the same for many workers across the province, as the relief of ending the bitter stand-off will likely be followed by anxiety.
Since OPSEU went on strike, its workers have not conducted driving examinations; patrolled prisons; processed birth, death, or marriage certificates at registrar-general offices; filled out health-insurance cards for newborns; advised students at Ontario Student Assistance Program offices; or worked
at school residences for deaf, blind and other disabled students.
About 15,000 of the 45,000 OPSEU workers were deemed to perform "essential" jobs -- such as conducting public health tests and processing welfare cheques -- and were forbidden by law from striking.
Verdict out on OPSEU contract offer: Tensions high among nurses at psychiatric hospital
The North Bay Nugget
Fri 03 May 2002
Depending on how provincial public-service workers in this area interpret the government's contract offer, the labour dispute might leave deep scars at North Bay Psychiatric Hospital.
Tensions remain high at the hospital, which could see an exodus of experienced registered nurses and registered practical nurses if they're not adequately addressed in this offer, said OPSEU Local 636 president Tony Morabito.
"That's what I'm worried about," he said.
North Bay's 1,300 OPSEU members were among the union's 45,000 members provincewide who were digesting the details of the offer, released early Thursday, which includes an 8.45 per cent wage increase over three years, up from the previous offer of 5.96 per cent.
"I think it's a fair package," said Eric Morin, a union mobilizer and Local 635 president, who represents employees of the ministries of natural resources and community and social services.
"It's obviously not what we set out to get, but after almost eight weeks on the line, our members will probably look at it favourably."
A vote could take place as early as this weekend, and Morin expects workers could be back to work early next week.
A key concession from the province allows the union to maintain control of half the $2-billion OPSEU Pension Trust.
And the province will not roll back the Factor 80 early retirement package, meaning employees who are at least 50 years of age with 30 years' service will not have their pensions reduced.
Strike's cost was hidden
The Record
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A14
Section: OPINION
With indifference for the people of this province, the Ontario government let the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union strike drag on needlessly.
With barely concealed glee, the same government tried to influence public opinion by sharing the savings it has gained by not having to pay its striking employees.
One has to wonder, though, how much was being spent to pay managers to come in after hours to complete the work not done by provincial employees while the government dragged its heels in negotiations.
Another question that begs to be asked is how much the province spent on its biased radio advertisements? The politicians and spin doctors knew better than anyone that this strike wasn't about wages, but the fight of OPSEU members to keep the government from taking their pension money.
The cost of this strike to Ontarians could have been lives. Remember Walkerton? Without Ministry of Environment inspectors, there was no one to check shipments of industrial waste or respond to chemical spills. While Ministry of Labour workers were on the picket line, there was no one to monitor
safety at construction sites.
And with reduced staffing levels at the Family Responsibility Office, many Ontario mothers were unable to afford diapers because they were stuck in limbo waiting for the system to start collecting their court-awarded child support payments from deadbeat dads.
Mary-Louise Heideman
Kitchener
An end to strike may not mean end to bitterness; OPSEU to vote this weekend on tentative contract agreement
Guelph Mercury
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A1
Ontario Public Services Employees Union members are warning that bitterness toward the provincial government could linger, despite the fact they have reached a tentative agreement ending their seven-week strike.
Union members are expected to vote this weekend on the tentative agreement reached early Thursday.
Although pleased with the prospect of returning to work as early as Monday, striking correctional worker Derek Wilson said he believes the government's actions have made some union members more radical.
"I don't think the government treated the strike with the respect that I felt it should have. They did a lot of nasty stuff in picket lines."
The potential deal gives civil servants a wage increase of 8.45 per cent over three years, plus an additional one per cent for employees at the top of the pay scale in every category except corrections.
Corrections employees would get an immediate five per cent wage increase in addition to the 8.45 per cent over three years.
The province's contract workers will receive a four per cent increase in lieu of benefits.
"We're still falling behind economically like we have been since 1992," said Wilson.
"But on the other hand we are gaining some back. The 8.45 per cent doesn't seem to be a great number, but it's better than the original offer."
While Wilson can accept the contract, he is less forgiving about what he sees as questionable government tactics.
"They used their managers as strike-breakers, they condoned scabbing, they tried every which way to get people in," he said while standing at the driveway to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture office in Fergus, a flashpoint for tension.
"They've used courts to put injunctions on picket sites ... to take away our democratic right to picket. So it's been a nasty strike.
"When these people go back to work they're not going back to work to kiss and make up.
"It's a big fight and it's probably going to go on for another couple of years. They've lost all respect for their managers when the managers are the ones trying to guide their scabs through the picket lines.
"They took an active role instead of sitting back and letting the negotiators do the job."
Paul Hughes, president of the Guelph Correctional Centre union local, said many members are upset with what he called heavy-handed actions of the government -- including strike breaking, unfair bargaining and misrepresentative television commercials.
"People knew that this government has a history of being anti- union and it was going to be a really tough battle.
Strike draws to end with 'bad feeling': Public service employees likely to be back on job Monday if tentative deal with government is ratified on weekend
The Standard (St. Catharines - Niagara)
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A1 / Front
After nearly eight weeks walking a picket line in front of her St. Catharines office, Heather Smith is anxious to get back to work inside.
But the contract employee at the Ministry of Transportation doesn't expect frayed emotions to fade quickly over Ontario's longest-ever public service strike.
"It creates a bad feeling," she said Thursday, shortly after the government and the Ontario Public Services Union announced a tentative deal. "I don't think it will ever go away. You don't trust your employer."
OPSEU workers across Niagara continued to picket in front of government offices Thursday and planned to be back today.
But the atmosphere, at least in front of the MTO's offices at 301 St. Paul St., was more relaxed than it had been since the strike by 45,000 workers began March 13.
"People seem to be relieved it's finally over. It's been a long time," said Mahendra Thaleshvar, president of OPSEU Local 270.
Provided the deal is ratified, workers will likely be back on the job Monday, said Thaleshvar.
"It's hard to say how the atmosphere will be because there are some pretty strong feelings about people crossing the line and going to work when the others were out in the rain and the cold," he said.
The proposed contract provides an 8.45 per cent pay increase over three years plus an additional one per cent for workers at the top of the pay scale in every category except those in corrections. Correctional employees would also get the 8.45 per cent wage hike over three years, plus an immediate
increase of five per cent.
The deal would also give the union the right to maintain control over pension surpluses.
For local teenager, OPSEU strike stalled her drive for freedom
The Packet & Times (Orillia)
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A3
For Michelle Pridham, the end of the weeks-old strike by Ontario's public servants will mean more personal freedom and possibly more money.
The Grade 11 student at Park Street Collegiate was planning to take a 15-minute driving test in April that would have allowed her to drive herself to school and work.
But provincial driving examiners have not been conducting road tests since the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) went on strike almost eight weeks ago.
Unable to drive without being accompanied by a licensed driver, Pridham still depends on her parents and grandmother to get rides from her home in Hawkestone to her job in Shanty Bay.
"It's hard relying on my parents," says the 16-year-old. "They don't want to drive me everywhere. They both have jobs."
And Pridham still needs to take the school bus back and forth to school, a 40-minute ride each way.
Pridham's employer at a Harvey's Restaurant in Shanty Bay wants her to start at 4 p.m. on weekdays, but without her own transportation she can't get to work much before 5 p.m.
"I get less hours because they won't put me on weekdays," Pridham said.
On Friday nights, her grandmother drives from Barrie to Hawkestone to give Pridham a ride to work. Then one of her parents pick her up at the end of her shift.
Now that the strike appears to be settled, Pridham will try to get the earliest appointment she can for the G1 exit test that will give her a G2 if she passes.
But young drivers should expect delays as people waiting out the strike start booking appointments.
"There's going to be a real backlog," says local driving instructor Tom Graham.
"Lots of students have been holding off till the strike's over."
Drivers begin with a G1 licence that requires accompaniment by a person who has been licensed to drive for four years.
The next step is the G2, which allows the solo operation of a vehicle. The holder of a G2 licence cannot have alcohol in their blood or carry more passengers than seat-belts.
The G licence, which must be acquired within five years of the G2, allows the driver to have the legal limit of alcohol and carry one passenger more than the number of seat-belts.
Tip of the hat to OPSEU
The Toronto Star
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A23
Section: Letter
Re OPSEU strike ends with tentative deal, thestar.com, May 2.
Congratulations to all those OPSEU members who stood up to the Ontario government during this strike.
In these last few weeks, it has occurred to me that none of these workers was getting any pay at all. For almost two months, these people stood up for their rights and the rights of Ontarians to have better public services with workers who are paid what they deserve. I was afraid that the Ontario
government would just wait them out until they were all going bankrupt and had to accept any deal that the government decided to offer.
Also, kudos to Ernie Eves. Hopefully this is a preview of a new Tory leadership; one that tries to make peace with its workers.
Catherine Kuhn
Toronto
Tory tactics were cynical
The Toronto Star
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A23
Section: Letter
Re OPSEU strike ends with tentative deal, thestar.com, May 2.
My disgust with the cynicism and hypocrisy of the Tory government reached a new level when I heard Management Board Chair David Tsubouchi say that the government had budgeted for the settlement with OPSEU. If that's true, why did it keep 30,000 workers on the picket line for 51 days, costing them
$7.6 million a day in lost wages and causing them untold stress and hardship?
The only possible explanation is that it intended the workers to pay for their own wage increase, while draining their strike fund and ensuring they would never again dare to strike.
John C. Ward
Stirling, Ont.
The strike's over - at last: Deal expected to end bitter seven-week walkout: Days of intense negotiations produce long-awaited agreement
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: 1 / Front
"This awful time is over."
Those were the words of a beleaguered Wolfe Island ferry captain yesterday morning as he announced on a loud speaker for everyone aboard that provincial employees had reached a tentative deal to end a bitter seven-week strike.
"I'm greatly relieved," said Captain Brian Johnson. "It was real tense with the [ferry] trips going down from 19 trips a day to five."
His audible relief was shared by Ontario Public Service Employees Union workers, who said they were just glad that a deal had finally been reached.
The tentative deal, reached between the province and OPSEU at 6:45 a.m. yesterday, still has to be ratified by the 45,000 workers the union represents. Employees could be back to work as early as Monday or Tuesday.
The proposed settlement includes an 8.45-per-cent wage increase over three years, plus an additional one per cent for employees at the top of the pay scale in every category except for those working for the Correctional Service of Canada. Corrections workers would get the 8.45 per cent over three
years, plus an immediate five-per-cent raise.
Other details of the deal include immediate wage hikes for medical and chemical laboratory technologists, classroom assistants and school aides in provincial schools. Contract employees would also receive a four-per-cent increase in pay in lieu of benefits.
OPSEU also won the right to maintain control of half of a $2-billion pension surplus that can be used for early retirement plans or contribution holidays.
Both the union and the government said they were happy with the agreement, reached after days of intense negotiating.
The strike had sparked violence at several provincial jails, but caused only minor inconveniences to the public.
Kathy Smith, president of Kingston's Local 468, is relieved by the news of the deal, but said she is reserving an opinion until she can actually read it.
"I think in my heart I know it's going to get ratified, but you never know until the vote is in," she said.
Standing in the union's cramped trailer outside the Ministry of Health building on Wellington Street, Smith looked tired.
Her cellphone rang as she stirred chili in one of several large pots crowding the table in front of her.
She quickly told the caller she would get back to them and continued telling The Whig-Standard there have been many tense moments in the small trailer as tempers flared over such issues as the $200 strike pay and food available for them.
"People were stressed to the max," she said. "There were even squabbles over the food. There were many sleepless nights."
Smith said reaction was one of relief and happiness among employees yesterday morning when she announced the deal outside the Ministry of Health building in the rain.
"People cheered," she said.
The union had even moved a television set outside the doors of the building so that its members could watch if anything new was televised about the tentative agreement.
For OPSEU worker Michelle McDonald, a single mother, the strike has been financially devastating.
"Thank goodness it's over ... I heaved a sigh of relief," she said, standing in the rain underneath a colourful umbrella.
OPSEU deal made on eve of byelection: Seven-week strike settled on day premier vies for legislature seat
The Ottawa Citizen
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: A5
TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Ernie Eves approved government concessions that halted a seven-week provincial workers' strike less than three hours before voting began in his Toronto-area byelection.
An early morning offer led to a 6:45 a.m. deal that drew strong praise for Mr. Eves from the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union, which hopes its 45,000 members will ratify the contract and start returning to work as early as Monday.
The contract would give all workers, except those in Corrections, an 8.45-per-cent wage increase over three years, with top-of-scale employees getting an extra one per cent. Corrections staff would get the 8.45-per-cent increase plus an immediate five-per-cent raise.
Medical and chemical laboratory technologists, classroom assistants and school aides would also get immediate increases in addition to the 8.45 per cent. Contract and part-time employees -- now one quarter of the workforce -- will get a four-per-cent increase in lieu of benefits.
OPSEU president Leah Casselman called the tentative pact a "huge victory" for provincial workers. She said the impasse was broken by Mr. Eves, who called her at home Sunday "interested in having a resolution to this situation."
"That's what precipitated their movement," she said of negotiations that picked up steam prior to Mr. Eves' bid for a legislature seat representing Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey and a separate byelection in Nipissing yesterday.
Mr. Eves "seems to be wanting to put a different face on the government," Ms. Casselman told reporters, adding she doesn't care if his conciliatory talk is "rhetoric" as long as it gets her members a fair deal.
If Mike Harris had remained as premier, the strike likely would have dragged on, she said.
Management Board chairman David Tsubouchi praised Ms. Casselman, Mr. Eves and government negotiators for ending long, often-bitter negotiations with "a fair deal for employees and taxpayers."
Mr. Tsubouchi said he was in frequent contact with Mr. Eves, who approved all government offers and was "instrumental" in the settlement hammered out after a 2 a.m. management overture.
The strike's over - at last: 'We have to pick up the pieces again': Islanders rejoice at news ferry service to return to normal
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Fri 03 May 2002
Page: 1 / Front
"If I had a bottle of champagne, I'd crack it open."
Wolfe Island resident Mildred Walton, like the rest of her community, is ready to celebrate the return of full ferry service.
For the past seven weeks, the Wolfe Island ferry has been running on a severely reduced schedule because of the strike by provincial public servants. There are only five ferry runs on weekdays, as compared to the 19 runs the ferry normally makes, and only three on Saturdays.
As a result of the reduced service, commuters had to rent hotel rooms, island businesses weren't able to get supplies, people missed doctor's appointments, senior citizens were not able to get home care, and students missed extracurricular activities.
"We were held hostage for eight weeks here," said Mostafa Ismail, one of the directors of the General Wolfe Hotel.
Ismail has been personally inconvenienced by the strike and his business has also suffered. The opening of the dining room at the General Wolfe has been delayed eight weeks and, as a result, the hotel lost $30,000 in April alone, he said.
Once the strike is resolved, the hotel will be able to take on the seven or eight workers it would normally have hired during March.
"We have to pick up the pieces and begin to revive the business again," Ismail said.
The end of the strike also means that islanders will be able to spend less time waiting in line for the ferry and more time with their family and friends. For the past seven weeks, people have commonly been waiting in the ferry line for three hours every morning and evening.
Duncan Pyke and his wife Bev run a landscaping business in town and they have had to rent hotel rooms for the past few weekends in order to get to work early enough. Once the strike is over, they won't have to hire a sitter to watch their children, and they can spend more time with their two boys.
John Vanstrien says it's the simple pleasures that Wolfe Islanders have missed out on during the strike. Once the ferry service is restored, he's going to go out for dinner and maybe watch a movie. "We haven't seen a movie in the past eight weeks."
The tentative settlement is extremely timely for tourism on Wolfe Island, with the U.S. ferry scheduled to open soon and the return of summer residents approaching.
Tourism on the mainland will also benefit when the OPSEU strike is resolved. If the strike had continued much longer, the opening of Fort Henry on May 19 could have been jeopardized.
major attraction
"It is really good news if we are able to open on time. And everyone in Kingston is going to benefit, too," said fort manager John Robertson. The fort is one of the major tourist attractions in Kingston, attracting 160,000 people each year.
The fort has already lost approximately $40,000 in revenue from the bus tours it usually receives in March and April but Robertson is confident that the fort can still have a successful season.
"We may have some parts of our programs reduced because we have lost eight weeks of planning time. But we won't put out anything we're not proud of. The visitors won't see the wrinkles we're seeing."
Heather Gregg, tourism and marketing manager for the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, is also happy to see the end of the strike.
"We need to have Fort Henry operating when the season opens. Fort Henry is one of the jewels of Kingston."
Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Kingston, bringing in $190 million into the local economy last year.
"Tourism affects everyone in Kingston from the person who pumps the gas, to the waitress in the restaurant, to the shop clerk, not to mention the people in the hotels," Gregg said.
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