A Provincial Election Newsletter for OPSEU Members
Issue 2 - September 11
OPSEU campaign in full swing
OPSEU’s campaign to rebuild public services at the ballot box Oct. 2 is in full swing.
Member volunteers in every OPSEU region are jumping in with both feet to help elect strong NDP and Liberal candidates in key ridings.
“Our number one goal in this election is get our members to the polls in record numbers,” said Leah Casselman, president of OPSEU. “We know from our research that our members are strongly anti-Tory. With 100,000 members, our votes could be the deciding factor on Election Day.”
Voter turnout will be absolutely critical in this election, Casselman said.
“In the last election, just 58.3% of eligible voters actually voted,” she said. “According to the survey we did in May, that number is around 64 per cent for OPSEU members.
“It’s simply not good enough. We cannot have 36,000 of our members doing something else when the fate of public services and our jobs is being decided at the polling booth.
“We need everybody out on Oct. 2 to defeat the Tories.”
OPSEU’s campaign aims to encourage members to vote for public services and jobs in two main ways:
· by identifying NDP and Liberal supporters in key target ridings; and
· by distributing information and generating excitement about the vote in every corner of the province.
Targeted riding strategy
Over 22,000 members in key ridings have already received a letter from President Casselman. OPSEU volunteers will be calling every one to chat about the election, asking them to vote, take a lawn or window sign, and volunteer to help out on candidate campaigns.
To help with the OPSEU campaign, members should contact the volunteer coordinator in their area (see below).
OPSEU election coordinators
Region 1
Jayne McKenzie: (519) 671-5852; jaynemckenzie@sympatico.ca
Region 2
Neil Fraser or Brock Suddaby: (905) 527-6122; nopseu@hotmail.com
Region 3
Karrie Ouchas: (905) 579-2658; ouchas@sympatico.ca
Region 4
Rhéal Delaquis: (613) 932-8939
Region 5
Maria Rodrigues: (416) 928-2489; tdowney@opseu.org
Region 6
Sue Brown (North Bay): (705) 499-5129; sbrown@opseu.org
Linda Aho (Sudbury/Sault Ste. Marie): (705) 669-7808; linda.aho@sympatico.ca
Peter Wall (Timmins): (705) 372-3310; peterw@ntl.sympatico.ca
Region 7
Charlie Faust (Thunder Bay): (807) 887-0328; cfaust@vianet.ca
James Tocker (Kenora): (807) 626-4884; jtocker@tbaytel.net
Province-wide strategy
Information is the key to election awareness. In addition to this newsletter, which is e-mailed and faxed to over 12,000 members, the union has so far produced issue sheets in four key issue areas: health care, post-secondary education, social services, and the Ontario Public Service. Each sheet
features sample questions for members to ask at all-candidates meetings in their local ridings. The issue sheets are on the web at http://www.opseu.org/pac/issues.htm.
A total of 10,000 copies of each have been shipped, in English and French, to all OPSEU regional offices.
“Please get these materials out to your members any way you can,” President Casselman advised OPSEU Locals. “Hand them out outside your workplace, or have a noon-hour barbecue. Hold a General Membership Meeting. Do whatever it takes.”
Thousands of stickers and 11” x 17” posters bearing the “It’s all about Public Services” logo are also available at OPSEU regional offices, in both languages. The stickers are non-partisan and can be used anywhere.
“We’ve got to get all our members talking about the election,” she said. “If you’re an OPSEU member, this election will have a huge impact on your success at work and at the bargaining table.
“It could even determine whether you end up on strike in the next four years, and let me tell you, voting is a lot easier and cheaper than walking a picket line.”
Union warned Tories about meat safety risk
You can’t say we didn’t warn them.
Today’s Toronto Star, based on a leaked Cabinet document, tells a terrifying story of government mismanagement.
Turns out the Ernie Eves Cabinet has known since April 2002 that consumer safety and the farm economy were at risk from a broken-down meat inspection system. Their response was to do nothing to fix it.
The Cabinet document estimated that tainted meat causes 58,000 illnesses in Ontario and costs the health care system $200 million every year. The document said staff turnover among meat inspectors has reached “critical levels” and that, in some cases, new inspectors were going to work on kill floors
before they had even completed basic training.
“We have been telling this government for 18 months that meat safety was at risk,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “We spent $400,000 on radio ads that alerted the public to the problem, we’ve done news releases and opinion pieces in newspapers, and we’ve supported the inspectors in their
efforts to draw attention to the crisis.
“Now we know that the problem wasn’t that the Tories didn’t believe us,” she said. “The problem was that they just didn’t care.”
Check the Toronto Star web site at /www.thestar.ca for more details on the Cabinet document. Visit
www.meatinspectors.org to see what OPSEU and meat inspectors have been saying.
For election information, or to get involved in the OPSEU campaign, check the web at www.opseu.org .
Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.
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