Recent media coverage of a dispute between the province and the
Association of Management Administrative and Professional Crown
Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) and the debate about it among MPPs
contain some statements worth clarifying.
Here
are a few facts to set against media hype and what looks like
“political spin” at Queens Park from the government and the
Conservatives:
There
is an additional one per cent general wage increase for 2012.
This
wage increase was negotiated in 2008-09 along with the other
provisions of the current agreement. Members were informed of this
at information sessions and at votes held to ratify the contract.
The
employer insisted that this one per cent - the final stage of the
2009-2012 wage increases - remain confidential beyond our bargaining
and ratification procedures. OPSEU consented to that arrangement.
Those
are the basic facts. Some of it came to light at the Labour Board
this week because the province was not successful in trying to keep
the information from being revealed to AMAPCEO.
Media
reports say AMAPCEO and now some employers are complaining about
their lack of knowledge about one element of a contract negotiated
and ratified two years ago. To that, OPSEU says we are proud of
our strength and our ongoing determination to organize and mobilize
members and send in teams to negotiate the best possible contract –
in the OPS and every other membership sector.
The
provision of quality public services through good economic times and
bad is what OPSEU members do. We have also come together for 100
years now to bargain hard for fairness for front line staff and for
our communities – for decent wages and benefits, for protection from
injury, for pay equity, for pensions, for human rights.
There
will always be politicians who want to scapegoat us. It’s cheap and
easy. It scores points with some voters. We’re seeing it from
Wisconsin to Queens Park to Ottawa. It’s easier than wrestling with
the exploding cost of corporate tax cuts or addressing the poverty
faced by too many children and seniors or reforming mental health
care.
With
the solidarity of working people and our allies, we will continue to
push back against reactionary political forces and we will work
towards the kind of Ontario we can all be proud of.
