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 May, 2002: Article 1
Paying the price pays off
Dear sisters and brothers:
On March 13, 2002, 45,000 OPSEU members went on strike. Today, 51 days later, we have a tentative agreement.
Congratulations on all your work to bring us to this day. This agreement reflects the courage and determination of every single OPSEU member who walked the picket line, performed essential and emergency services, or faced down a vicious employer at the bargaining table.
You held firm and supported your teams through bad weather, management harassment, and over 150 picket line injunctions.
You withstood the stress of not knowing how long the strike would last.
You withstood a barrage of management propaganda, paid for at taxpayers’ expense.
You withstood the stress of sacrificing over $26 million per week in lost wages to fight this employer.
I know it has been hard. It has not been in vain.
Right across this province, from Ear Falls to Whitney to Hawkesbury to Windsor, OPSEU members have taken part in a grassroots communications project like this province has never seen.
After 51 days, the Ontario public now has a clearer idea than ever before of the absolutely crucial work that our members do.
We stop poachers.
We supervise pedophiles in the community.
We teach deaf and blind children.
We provide psychiatric care.
We inspect water treatment plants.
We prevent workers from being killed on the job.
We are Ontario’s front line of defence – even, and especially, when the attackers are the elected officials who currently call themselves the government of Ontario.
In March, that government was determined to ignore our just and reasonable demands. The Tories also tried to extort a series of vicious concessions. You fought back. You made them listen. I say this is a major victory.
Of course, the final say is yours.
Through demand-setting, the election of your bargaining teams, our strike vote, and during the strike, our progress has been powered by your choices, both as an individual and as a member of this amazing union.
The contract summarized on these pages is your contract. You have paid a high price for it. In doing so, you have played a part in a historic struggle. This is not just the struggle of Ontario public employees to win better lives and more respect from their employer. This is the struggle of workers
everywhere over the centuries.
Does it pay off? You bet it does. Without union struggle, our society would not have the health and social programs it has. It would have a much less equal distribution of wealth. Wages and working conditions for ordinary people would, in general, be worse. More workers would be killed on the job. We wouldn’t
have such a thing as weekends.
This employer tried to bust our union. Their failure to do so was just as dramatic as the solidarity that produced this agreement.
I am extremely proud of our members today, as I am every day. Each and every OPSEU member who fought for this contract is a hero. I salute you.
In solidarity,
Leah Casselman
President, Ontario Public Service Employees Union
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