President's Message

Historic opportunity squandered
As government runs scared

September 12, 2008

OPSEU is always prepared to act on behalf of its membership.

We are a large and effective labour union with more than 500 collective agreements to negotiate and enforce.

Sometimes our members have to take strike action to back their demands – as we are doing at Temiskaming health unit right now -- but 99 per cent of the time we achieve agreements without any work stoppage at all.

We also negotiate directly with the Ontario government for our 42,000 members who work in the Ontario Public Service.

This presents particular challenges, because the government is not only the employer, it can also pass legislation affecting our bargaining rights. The government holds the legislative hammer to do what it wants; but that’s not to say we can’t exert some positive influence.

Some past governments, like the Tories headed by Mike Harris, rewrote legislation taking away our rights, without bothering to consult with us. More moderate governments, like the current McGuinty Liberals, invite us to consult over proposed changes. (Of course, no government ever wants to appear to be negotiating changes to legislation --- they just want to appear consultative.)

That’s why it was imperative that we and other bargaining agents took part in recent talks about changes to legislation affecting the OPS bargaining units. We sent a team of negotiators in good faith. We listened to what the government wanted. We rejected most of what they proposed, and we made some counter-proposals to show them a better way to get what they called “modernized labour relations.”

We were concerned about the lack of advancement opportunities for our OPS members, largely caused by the division between the two bargaining agents – one a great union and the other a small management association -- which reduces the collective bargaining power of all.

In any kind of tentative discussions or negotiations, confidentiality and candour are the order of the day. There’s no way any government would talk to us if we blasted all the details immediately over the World Wide Web.

In our union democracy, your leadership is elected to negotiate, and we will report to membership when there is something substantive to report.

Unfortunately, not all the bargaining agents see it that way, especially non-union ones who may stand to lose some of their elite status. Confidentiality can so easily be portrayed as a “secret deal,” in order to blow up these kinds of talks. And that’s just what this group did, along with a passel of other lies and slanders, Predictably, the government ran scared.

So in the end, what could have been a historic breakthrough that would finally rectify some longstanding problems facing the vast majority of OPS members has turned to dust -- thanks to a vocal minority intent on preserving the status quo.

Despite this disappointment, I’m particularly proud of our negotiating team, and of our Executive Board Members who gave this endeavour their unanimous support.

In solidarity,

Warren (Smokey) Thomas

President