Feb. 19, 2001
“We’re getting
ready.”
“You better start taking us seriously right
now, because we’re getting ready.”
That’s the message members
of Local 553 are sending their employer as they get ready for the
next round of collective bargaining in the Ontario Public Service,
says Local president Dallas Takeuchi.
About 60 people showed up for the Local’s
demand-setting meeting Friday, Feb. 16. Local 553 members, who work
at the Ministry of Environment laboratory in Etobicoke, had a lot to
say.
Higher wages, an end to privatization and
contracting out, benefits, training, hours of work, and the Factor
80 early retirement plan all came up in the demand-setting
discussion.
The Local is looking forward to this round of
contract talks, says Takeuchi. “Members are interested in getting
their demands heard by management, and getting the message across to
our employer locally,” he says.
The Local is getting its strike committee
ready and working on telephone trees already, says Takeuchi.
Local 553 is just one of over 200 OPSEU Locals
holding demand-setting meetings across the OPS this month.
Bargaining towards a new OPSEU collective agreement in the OPS will
begin this fall. The current contract expires Dec. 31, 2001.
Do your wages need adjusting (much)?
As an employee of the Ontario Public Service,
you might think Ontario has been in a severe recession for the last
five or six years. The facts tell a different story. In 1998, the
Ontario economy grew, in real terms, by 4.1 per cent; in 1999, by
6.1 per cent; and in 2000, by 5.5 per cent. The booming economy
boosted government revenues to $64 billion in the 2000-01 fiscal
year - $2 billion more than projected - and will result in at least
a $1.4 billion budget surplus for 2000. Ontario, and the Ontario
government, have never been so rich.
But while the private sector has enjoyed
rising wages, the public sector has been squashed under the heel of
Harris. For OPS workers, wage increases from January 1994 to
December 2001 (when our OPSEU collective agreement expires) will
amount to just 4.4 per cent compounded. Inflation over the same
period will have been 16.0 per cent. In other words, OPSEU members
in the Ontario Public Service have taken an 11.6 per cent pay cut
since 1994!
Collective bargaining holds the key
There’s only one way to deal with this
issue: collective bargaining. Collective bargaining only works if
members decide what they need and support their bargaining team to
get it.
Your current collective agreement expires Dec.
31, 2001. Bargaining for your next contract begins with
demand-setting. Demand-setting is happening this month in OPSEU
Locals across the province. If you’re Local meeting hasn’t
happened yet, don’t miss it!
For more information on OPS bargaining, check
the OPSEU web site at
www.opseu.org/ops/bargaining/index.htm.
Get on the list!
Table Talk is published
on our web site at www.opseu.org, but you can also receive it
directly by e-mail or by fax. To do so, e-mail a message to lwilliams@opseu.org
or fax it to Lesley Williams at (416) 443-1762. Please include your
name, e-mail address and/or fax number, correct mailing address and
local number (if you know it), and indicate that you want to be on
the OPS list.
Produced by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Road, Toronto M3B 3P8.
Web: www.opseu.org; e-mail: opseu@opseu.org.
Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.
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