June 16,
2006
You deserve the same
rights as private sector employees...
Have your say on
successor rights!
The OPSEU campaign
to restore successor rights for Crown employees is going full
speed ahead.
Successor rights
allow unionized workers whose work is sold or transferred to a
new employer to move with their work. In Ontario, workers in
the private sector have successor rights. Crown employees
don’t. In 1995, Mike Harris re-wrote Ontario labour law to
make it easier to dump jobs out of the OPS.
The result?
Thousands of workers saw their jobs sold to private operators,
downloaded to municipalities, or transferred to non-profit
agencies. No part of the OPS was untouched. The OPS lost jobs
in:
highway maintenance;
social assistance;
psychiatric hospitals;
property assessment;
air ambulance;
young offender facilities (and one adult
superjail);
print and mail;
developmental services; and
scores of other areas.
The work was still
getting done, but the people doing it no longer had the wages,
benefits, or pensions provided for by their OPS collective
agreement.
Under the
Liberals, work is still moving out of the OPS – even though
Dalton McGuinty said in 2003 that “Public employees should
have the same rights as employees in the private sector, and,
as Premier, I will restore successor rights for Ontario
government employees.”
Restoring
successor rights would protect employees whose jobs leave the
OPS, but that’s not all. By raising the cost of privatization
and downloading, restoring successor rights would also keep
jobs from leaving the OPS in the first place.
For the last two
months, OPSEU locals have been campaigning to make Dalton
McGuinty keep his promise.
Have your say!
Here are three
things you can do today to protect your job tomorrow – and
beyond:
1. Sign the
“same rights” postcard.
Contact your OPSEU local to get
one. It’s not too late! Many locals are still planning
meetings or events in June and July to encourage every
member to send a direct message to Mr. McGuinty.
2. Contact your
MPP. Changing the
laws of the land is all about political pressure, and your
elected representative needs to know that you care about
successor rights. To send your MPP an e-mail or download a
fax message, go to
http://www.opseu.org/campaign/samerights/index.htm
and click on “Contact your MPP.”
3. Join a lobby
team. Contact your
local president or OPSEU regional office if you would like
to be part of an OPSEU lobby team that visits your MPP to
deliver our message face to face.
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