MESSAGE BOARD
 
home | contact | links | forms | resources | newsletter | strike policy | training | bargaining | events | erc/lerc | collective agreement | health & safety | lec |

A message from OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas about the 2010 Ontario budget (March 26, 2010 10:04 AM)

Political theatre at Queen’s Park

Dear sisters and brothers:

A government budget is usually a political statement dressed up as a financial document. The March 25 Ontario budget was no exception.

We already knew, or could guess, what was going to be in it. The Throne Speech and various media leaks drew a pretty good sketch. But one thing in the budget was actually news: the McGuinty government will stop new funding for future wage increases for the people it pays. People like OPSEU members.

The Liberals won’t try to re-open existing contracts or impose unpaid “Dalton Days.” Instead, they just won’t give public sector employers any money to pay people more.

If you are heading into bargaining, the budget means you’ll be offered a pay cut. That’s because a zero per cent increase is actually a two per cent decrease, after inflation. And if you won’t accept a cut in pay, there’s always the layoff option.

You may think, “Well, if the budget is all about restraint, I guess this is what happens.” But the budget isn’t about restraint. In fact, a quick look at the numbers shows that government spending will rise by over $8 billion this year. That amounts to an overall increase of 6.9 per cent.

Granted, much of this money will go to good things. There’s money for daycare. For training and education. For more Employment Standards Auditors to catch bad employers who cheat their workers. That’s all good. But if this budget is not a restraint budget, then why cut back on the salaries of the public servants who, according to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, “make a valuable contribution to the health and well-being of this province”?

It’s not like the money saved will amount to much. According to the minister, it’s $750 million over two years. That may sound like a lot, but it’s barely a third of what he’ll give the boys in the boardrooms when his corporate income tax cut takes effect July 1.

In effect, the minister is saying that the worker who takes the bus to her job as a $20,000-a-year casual at the LCBO is responsible for the deficit, while the guy who drives his BMW to a $950-a-plate McGuinty fundraiser is not.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Public sector wages in Ontario are far from being too high. Our overall public spending is the second-lowest of any province or territory in Canada.

Corporate taxes in this province are not too high. They are the same as U.S. rates.

But polling shows that many voters believe our spending is too high, and many believe corporate tax cuts create jobs. (In fact, they are one of the least effective things a government can do to create jobs.)

People believe these things because it is what they are told, day after day, by corporate-owned think tanks, right-wing bloggers, and the conservative news editors who support an employer’s agenda, not a people’s agenda. But just because people believe something doesn’t make it true.

Public employees are not the only victims of this budget.

More than 600,000 poor Ontarians scraping by on social assistance and Ontario Disability Support will see their meager incomes cut by inflation. Over 300,000 of these will lose the special diet allowance they used to buy nutritious food. Apparently they too are to blame for the deficit.

Despite the global recession, we live in a province that is wealthy. Yet the way that wealth is shared is increasingly unfair. The budget makes scarcely any mention of the workers, private and public, who are struggling to get by on low-paid, part-time, temporary jobs. The budget offers no hope for the poor. And it does little for the hundreds of thousands of people – including children, for goodness sake – who need, but can’t get, the vital public services we provide.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: a compassionate society is possible. A fair society is possible.

But it will never happen until those of us who aren’t part of the “in” crowd at Queen’s Park build our power and become players in the political theatre that takes place there.

In the 18 months between now and the next election, we’ve got a lot of work to do – in our workplaces, at our bargaining tables, and in our communities.

The 2010 budget is just the beginning of that work.

In solidarity,

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President
Ontario Public Service Employees Union

 

A message from OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas about the next Ontario budget

Dear sisters and brothers:

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will deliver the next Ontario budget sometime in late March. The decisions Mr. Duncan and Premier McGuinty make this month will have a huge impact on the public services all OPSEU members provide.

At a time when the economy is still stumbling and unemployment remains high, now is not the time for the government to focus on deficit-cutting. That's because the real crisis our province is facing is not the deficit. The real problem is unemployment and the shortage of good jobs that allow people to live decently, bring their kids up properly, and retire with dignity.

To encourage the government to focus on saving and creating jobs, not cutting jobs, OPSEU has joined with the rest of the Ontario labour movement to encourage the McGuinty government to deliver a "Good Jobs" Budget next month. We are currently running radio ads on stations in every corner of Ontario. To find out more about the campaign, please visit www.communitiesthatwork.ca. Take our online poll, send an e-mail to Premier McGuinty, and post your comments about what the next budget can do to get Ontario working.

In solidarity,

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President
Ontario Public Service Employees Union

Unions Launch Jobs Campaign on Eve of Budget Hearings
“Good Jobs” Budget Needed to Speed Up and Consolidate Economic Recovery

(Toronto, February 1, 2010) - Unions in Ontario are pressing for Premier Dalton McGuinty to make next month’s budget a “good jobs” budget with a campaign starting with a series of radio ads launched this week.

“The top priority for the Ontario government must be to preserve and create good jobs,” says Ontario Federation Labour president Sid Ryan. “That’s how we’ll pay down the deficit and speed up and consolidate the economic recovery. It’s the only sustainable way to really help the government’s bottom line.

“Paying down the deficit won’t create good jobs, but creating good jobs will pay down the deficit.”

Ryan warned that Ontario’s fragile economic recovery could be threatened by short-sighted decisions to cut public services or sell off profitable assets such as the LCBO, Hydro or the OLG.

“Billions of dollars has been spent on infrastructure to stimulate the economy,” said Ryan. “We don’t want to see that progress reversed in this budget by cuts or sell-offs. Asset sales will do nothing to create good jobs, but will take revenue away from government and increase deficits and debt over the long term.”

This week, the OFL launched its “Communities that Work” Campaign, taking to the airwaves in a province-wide blitz to deliver the message.

Some quick facts to consider:

For information or to hear the ads: www.communitiesthatwork.ca.

Media inquiries:

Sid Ryan, OFL President, 416-209-0066
Sheila Keenan, 416-737-5798
Mike Belmore, 905-308-4300

OPSEU Census

In 2008, Convention passed a resolution mandating that OPSEU implement a plan that reflects a more representative workforce. With that resolution passed, OPSEU embarked on the Social Mapping Project. OPSEU has hired a consultant TWI Inc, to assist in the completion of the OPSEU Census. The Census initiative will collect statistics and demographics of OPSEU members and staff, to identify any barriers in policies, programs and services. This will provide invaluable information for forecasting and planning for OPSEU’s future and direction.

Please be sure to complete a census form by December 12, 2009
You can Count Me In!!

NEWS RELEASE

August 21, 2009

Memo To: MERC Co-Chairs

Subject: Resumption of ERC Training

We are pleased to announce the resumption of training sessions for Employee Relations Committees: Best Practices and Procedures. A copy of the training schedule from September 2009 to March 2010 has been attached, along with the Registration Form.

As you know, the Employee Relations Committee (ERC) training has been on hiatus since September 2008 to accommodate collective bargaining. The training material has now been updated and we are pleased to continue to deliver this popular half day training to local and ministry-level ERCs across the province. Since its inception in October 2007, 28 sessions have been conducted involving approximately 640 ERC members. The feedback has been extremely positive, endorsing both our use of joint facilitators and the quality of the training materials. In June 2008, the ERC Training Faculty received an EDGE award for “partnership,” and was also nominated for an HROntario Award of Excellence in 2008, and an Amethyst Award in 2009.

Please share this information with your ministry’s LERC Co-Chairs. Interested ERCs must submit a completed Registration Form directly to Anne Dods. ERC training information will also be posted on the HROntario Service Portal and the Employee Relations Community Portal under “Labour Relations Training & Events”.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 12, 2008

OPSEU endorses Earth Hour:
Union pledges one-hour shutdown March 29

TORONTO:
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has joined a growing list of organizations worldwide to endorse “Earth Hour.”

As part of the union’s commitment to run a greener organization, OPSEU will turn off all the lights within the union’s control in its 20 Ontario offices for one hour at 8:00 p.m., March 29, 2008. OPSEU already turns off all non-essential lighting.

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said the union wants to do its part and reduce its environmental footprint. “We encourage our members, staff, employers, suppliers, communities and other networks to do the same.

“Earth Hour 2008 will give OPSEU and its members a chance to make a difference and to show we care about our planet.”

The Earth Hour concept began in Sydney, Australia, where, on March 31 last year, two million households and businesses turned their lights off for one hour. This resulted in the reduction of 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent to getting 48, 613 cars off the road for one hour). This year, the project has been adopted worldwide, with 17 major cities including Toronto, and many organizations and individuals committing to the shutdown.

OPSEU represents 130,000 members, roughly five per cent of the population of Sydney, Australia. “If Sydney could accomplish this much, how much could OPSEU members accomplish if the lights were turned off for an hour in each OPSEU household across Ontario?” asked Thomas.

Ending Mandatory Retirement

This communication is to ensure that all staff are aware that, starting December 2006, mandatory retirement will be eliminated in the Ontario Public Service (OPS).

In December 2005, the Ontario legislature passed the Ending Mandatory Retirement Statute Law Amendment Act. The legislation comes into effect on December 12, 2006, one year after it received royal assent. This past transition year was provided to give employers throughout Ontario the opportunity to make any necessary changes to their policies and/or information they provide to their employees.

What this change means is that, starting December 12, 2006, OPS employees will no longer be required to retire at age 65. Staff will be able to decide when to retire based on their lifestyles, circumstances and personal priorities.

The OPS is committed to diversity and providing inclusive workplaces for all its employees.
Work is continuing on updating benefits for employees working beyond age 65 and we will provide further information about this as it becomes available.

Information about lifting mandatory retirement is available for employees on the INTRANET Site MyOPS <http://intra.myops.gov.on.ca/> .

If you have questions, please contact either your manager, or your Human Resources Consultant.

FRONTlines
Information for OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service
December 21, 2006

Grievance backlog still not dealt with

OPSEU members in the OPS who are waiting for a resolution to their classification grievance won’t get it before the New Year.

The collective agreement signed in 2005 gave the Joint System Subcommittee the job of clearing up a backlog of over 6,000 OPSEU classification grievances in the OPS. Appendix 34 of the contract appointed a mediator “to assist in expediting consideration of the outstanding disputes and in resolving them.”

The committee’s work was supposed to take 12 months from the time of its first meeting in November 2005.
OPSEU members Moira Cowan and Lynda Ferguson have been working on the backlog, assisted by OPSEU Job Security Officer Marg Simmons.

“We are disappointed that the process is not yet complete,” said Ferguson. “OPSEU members have been waiting for years, and they deserve to know where their grievances stand.

“In the last year, we have examined all the evidence submitted by grievors and presented the case for every grievance. By now we hoped we would be notifying grievors of outcomes, but unfortunately the process has not gone as smoothly as we hoped.”

“We would love to be able to tell OPSEU members what is happening, but we don’t want to jeopardize the progress we have made,” said Cowan. “We’re committed to doing everything we can to bring this project to a conclusion. It has been very frustrating. Hopefully, we will be able to communicate soon with members about their grievances, the way this process unfolded, and what we need to do next.”

Life insurance protected past age 65

OPSEU members in the OPS who work past age 65 will keep their life insurance coverage under a new agreement between the union and the Ontario government on Dec. 11.

The agreement modifies four articles in the OPSEU collective agreement. It became necessary after the McGuinty government passed legislation ending mandatory retirement for Ontario workers who reach the age of 65.

Supplementary health and dental benefits will also continue past the age of 65, but the collective agreement did not have to be changed to make this happen. The collective agreement says that plan coverage ends on the date of termination of employment, not at age 65.

The employer has refused to provide continued coverage for Long Term Income Protection or Workers Safety and Insurance Board benefits.

The employer’s rationale is that sick or injured workers past the age of 65 are eligible for pension income and do not need LTIP or WSIB benefits to live.

“The employer’s argument is begging for a legal challenge,” says Terry Baxter, OPSEU’s outgoing Supervisor for the OPS. “There is a strong argument to be made that this is a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

The employer’s policy will have to be challenged on the facts of individual cases, Baxter said.

It won’t be challenged by him, however. Thirty-six years after taking his first OPS job as a dairy products inspector with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Brother Baxter is retiring, effective Dec. 22.

All of OPSEU thanks Terry for his years of service and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.

Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

FRONTlines
Information for OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service
December 1, 2006

New MERCs must accept the "challenge to lead," CERC chair says
OPSEU members elected to sit on Ministry Enforcement and Renewal Committees must accept the "challenge to lead," Eric Morin says.

The OPSEU chair of the Central Enforcement and Renewal Committee made the comments last weekend at the OPS Divisional meetings in Toronto.

"We can influence the direction in the OPS over the next two years and beyond," Morin told delegates. "We can be the masters of our own destiny. But this can only be accomplished if we accept the challenge and seize control to lead."

Held every two years, "the Divisionals" offer union training to over 500 OPSEU activists in the OPS. Delegates get a chance to meet with co-workers from across the province.

The election of MERC members is a key purpose of the Divisionals. Most MERCs have three or four members, depending on the ministry. They typically meet four times a year with employer representatives from their ministry.

MERCs are responsible for monitoring changes in their ministries that impact on OPSEU members and working with the employer to solve workplace problems as they arise. Enforcing the collective agreement and defending the work members do are also key to the work of MERC members.

The new MERCs elected on Saturday need to be more pro-active in dealing with the employer, Morin said. "We spend far too much time responding to their unilateral disclosures (about workplace changes) when we should be in bilateral talks or bargaining to reduce the need for disclosures," he said.
"We spend too much time dealing with process and procedure while important issues lay in waiting."

"We need to support our demands at the MERC tables with campaigns, political action, and creative bargaining," Morin said. He pointed to the "Same rights" campaign to restore successor rights to Crown employees and the "Save the MNR" campaign to restore funding to the Ministry of Natural Resources as two areas where member action was making a difference.

OPSEU president Leah Casselman agreed. "The MNR campaign is having an impact. It is gaining support. Member morale is rising. Even managers are onside with the campaign," she said.

She urged the leadership in other ministries to fight budget cuts in the same way.
"Cuts are happening in all ministries," Casselman said. "If we had the same kind of campaign in every ministry of the OPS, in an election year, this government would be tripping over itself trying to figure out how to get us to stop. Without the pressure of our opposition, though, the Liberals are just going to keep doing what they're doing."

FRONTlines
Information for OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service
August 25, 2006

Members, managers will test new job evaluation system

200 OPSEU members to take part

For the last six months, a joint OPSEU/employer committee has been working away on a new job evaluation system for OPSEU jobs in the OPS. The committee is now asking for help to test its draft plan.

Beginning today, a selection of OPSEU members and their managers will receive letters by e-mail asking them to take part in a two-part exercise. The first part will be a three-hour questionnaire, to be completed during working hours. The second part will be a three-hour focus- group discussion, also during working hours.

Participation is voluntary. The union is urging all OPSEU members to take part if invited.
"This is not a test of anyone's job, and it will not affect how anyone's job is rated in the final job evaluation system," said John Watson, an OPSEU member on the joint committee. "This is a test of our draft system. We need to gather facts to plug into the system to see what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be fixed.

"It is in the interest of all OPSEU members to have the best classification system possible, and we can only create that if we have good information to work with."

The focus groups will be held in seven cities (one per OPSEU region), beginning in September. The cities are London, Hamilton, Peterborough, Kingston, Toronto, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay. The goal is to have 200 OPSEU members and their managers take part.

Both the questionnaire and the focus groups will be completed during work time.

About the Job Evaluation Project

The Job Evaluation Project grows out of Apppendix 34 of the OPSEU collective agreement in the OPS, in which the union and the employer agreed to fix a hopelessly outdated job classification system.

The Job Evaluation Project will not create new pay rates. Pay rates will be negotiated during the next round of contract talks.

The current collective agreement expires at the end of December 2008.
No pay adjustments will happen before then unless required to maintain pay equity.
For a full explanation of the Job Evaluation Project, read the Question-and-Answer document at

http://www.opseu.org/ops/frontlines/frontlinesfeb142006attach.htm

Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.