December 3, 2003

Rebuilding public services would pay for itself, auditor’s report shows

Can the new Ontario government rebuild public services and still pay down its budget deficit? The answer is a big YES, judging from the latest provincial auditor’s report.

“The provincial auditor has proven, once again, what we’ve been saying all along,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “The Harris-Eves Tories didn’t just demolish public services, they wasted piles of taxpayer dollars doing it.

“It’s time to stop throwing money away and start rebuilding the services Ontarians depend on.”

The annual auditor’s report, released yesterday, pointed to incompetent Tory management in several areas, including:

• The Family Responsibility Office. The FRO tracks down ex-spouses who are behind on their child support payments. 
• The courts. As of March 2002, 99,000 criminal charges had been waiting to be heard in provincial court for eight months or more. This is a 65 per cent increase over 1998. 
• Children’s mental health. The province funds about 250 community-based agencies that help children and families with mental health needs. The 2002-03 budget for these agencies was $315 million. It’s not a small number, but the auditor said that the Tories simply didn’t know if the money was well spent. 
• Consultants and contractors. The 2002 auditor’s report zoomed in on the overuse of high-priced consultants in the public service. Nothing has changed in the 2003 report. The Integrated Justice Project was supposed to provide a new computer system for the courts, corrections, police, and Crown attorneys. It cost $21 million over five years; it delivered absolutely nothing. When job actions by OPSEU members forced the Attorney General to do something about toxic mould at the Newmarket courthouse, a contractor won a competitive process to do $52,000 worth of repairs. The final bill was $23.8 million, with no further tendering of the work. Did taxpayers get their money’s worth? We’ll never know.
• The “Innovation Trust.” In March 1999, the Tories created the Ontario Innovation Trust. The Trust was created by a deal between the Tories and a private corporation named as the Trustee. The Tories gave the Trust $750 million to pay for capital costs related to research at Ontario universities, colleges, hospitals, and research institutes. The Trust has spent $240 million so far, leaving over half a billion in the bank. So who controls this money? Not the government. 

Tories didn’t learn much from Walkerton

After the Walkerton disaster, you would think the Tories would have bent over backwards to get drinking water quality under control. They didn’t.

The auditor reported that:

• Inspection activity at water treatment plants is only 73 per cent of 1995-96 levels.
• Only 54 of 357 private drinking water treatment plants were inspected last year, and only 44 of the 1,119 “smaller plants and designated facilities” were. Of these, over 20 per cent had never sent in any test results to the Ministry of Environment, and another 27 per cent had not sent in the minimum number of samples for E. coli bacteria and fecal coliform, two known killers.
• A $17-million computer system, Environet, does not provide ministry staff with the information they needed to protect our air and drinking water.

In the public health system, thousands of high-risk food premises were not being inspected. The auditor reported that the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care did not know why public health costs varied widely from community to community.

Tories ignored reports

Assistant provincial auditor Jim McCarter was clearly frustrated by many of the problems raised in the latest report. “Far too many concerns noted in our prior audits are not being satisfactorily addressed,” he wrote. “In some cases, these same concerns were raised almost ten years ago.”

“The Tories undermined our public services over years, not months,” said Leah Casselman. “These problems won’t be fixed overnight, but it’s our job now to make sure the Liberals know that OPSEU members - and all Ontarians - expect the new government to fix them.

“It’s time to stop letting private consultants run government and start hiring the staff we need to run services well and spend our money wisely,” she said “All OPSEU members should let their MPPs know it.”

For the complete Action Fax

To read the provincial auditor’s report yourself, check the web at www.gov.on.ca/opa.

November 28, 2003

Welcome back!
Grievance settlement returns contract meat inspectors to the OPS - and OPSEU

Seven years after being privatized by the Mike Harris Tories, Ontario’s contract meat inspectors are coming back into the Ontario Public Service.

In a grievance settlement ratified Thursday, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food agreed to post public service jobs for 118 meat inspectors. The new public employees will join the 10 Agricultural Specialists already working for OMAF in over 200 provincially-inspected abattoirs.

“We applaud the new Liberal government for fulfilling this campaign promise,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “This settlement recognizes the work of the people who do one of the toughest, bloodiest, and most important jobs in Ontario. It’s a crucial first step in stabilizing and revitalizing our meat safety system to protect the health of all Ontarians.”

After the Alberta “mad cow” scare in May and the Aylmer Meat Packers scandal in August, meat safety became a burning issue during the recent provincial election campaign. Both the Liberals and the New Democrats promised to bring meat inspectors back into the public service.

The contract inspectors’ wages have been frozen at 1993 levels. Reimbursement for expenses, such as use of their own vehicle for work purposes, has been sporadic at best. But as Agricultural Specialists, the successful applicants will now have collective agreement rights, in some cases for the first time in their lives.

To view the settlement,  click here .

Grievance process rolls on

The meat inspectors’ settlement is just the latest in a series of victories that have brought a total of 273 positions back into the OPSEU bargaining unit this year. OPSEU’s “bargaining unit integrity” grievance is at mediation/arbitration five days a month.

OPSEU president Leah Casselman wrote to Premier Dalton McGuinty today to urge the government to take immediate steps to speed up the settling of the grievances.

“This process has worked well, but slowly,” she wrote. “It needs to be streamlined. Your leadership now could make things move a lot more quickly. By instructing [Management Board Secretariat] and your line Ministries to co-operate fully with each other and the union, you really can strengthen the public service and save money at the same time.”

OPSEU members have identified over 2,000 fee-for-service consultants and temp agency workers whose work belongs in the OPSEU bargaining unit. The positions are many and varied, from Systems Officer to Nurse, and in every Ministry.

Casselman said there are more positions in OPSEU workplaces that have not yet been identified. She urged OPSEU members to help the Grievance Department with the work.

“If you are working beside someone who is not a public service employee, but should be, let us know,” she said. “A strong public service depends on committed public service employees. The OPS can never provide the service Ontarians expect if it is staffed by people who have no long term commitment to the work we do.”

For more information on the bargaining unit integrity grievance, check the web at www.opseu.org/ops/frontlines2apr0303.htm  and at www.opseu.org/ops/frontlines2apr0303.htm .

To provide new information about temp agency or fee-for-service consultants in your workplace, fill out the stewards’ survey at http://www.opseu.org/ops/BUIstewardssurveyformApr0303.PDF  and fax it in to the number on the form.

To talk to someone in person about it, contact OPSEU Grievance Officer Laurie Chapman at 1-800-268-7376 ext. 704 or (in the Toronto area) (416) 443-8888 ext. 704.

November 17, 2003

Dec. 12 is deadline for power shortage grievances

OPSEU members in the OPS who believe they were incorrectly paid or credited during the provincial power shortage in August have until Dec. 12 to file a grievance. The Grievance Settlement Board (GSB) set the date at a Nov. 7 hearing.

The “state of emergency” declared by then-Premier Ernie Eves on Aug. 14 had varying effects on OPS employees. Thousands of workers were told to stay home to conserve electricity. Thousands of others went to work to provide so-called “critical” services. Still others were on vacation during all or part of the shortage.

For more information

October 2, 2003

Tory defeat is opportunity to rebuild public services, Casselman says

The convincing defeat of the Ernie Eves Tories at the polls today presents a long-awaited opportunity to rebuild Ontario's public services, the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union
says.

"For eight long years of Tory rule, front-line public service workers,have borne the brunt of vicious and repeated attacks on the work they do for Ontarians," Leah Casselman said. "We look forward to working with the new government to rebuild public services so we can start creating the kind of society people really want."

Conservative cuts and privatization have left Ontario with public services that are too weak to do what they are supposed to do, Casselman said.

"The Walkerton water disaster, and the Aylmer meat scandal, and heart patients sleeping in hospital hallways didn't happen by accident," she said. "The collapse of our public services was carefully planned to benefit the private investors who are the main backers of the Tory party.

"Tonight marks the beginning of the rebuilding, and our union will be front and centre in that work," she said. "We look forward to laying down our arms and picking up our tools."

Casselman said the union would not be deterred by reports of a provincial  deficit that could be as high as $4.5 billion.

 "Our members provide great value for money in every part of the public sector," she said. "In contrast, the provincial auditor found Tory consultants, who were getting paid up to six times more than our members would get paid to,do the same work.

"Ending privatization and improving management can pay huge dividends in terms of service quality and cost. We look forward to sharing our ideas to make things work better."

Whatever the budget situation, a Liberal government will have billions of dollars more to put towards public services than a Conservative government would have, Casselman said.    "Since 1995, tax cuts have sucked the lifeblood out of public services," she said. "We welcome the end of the Tory tax cut era."

September 30, 2003

Underfunded and shortstaffed health care system led to spread of SARS: OPSEU 
Hospitals should not be "vectors of contagion"

TORONTO - The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), says underfunding, staff shortages, lack of crisis preparedness and poor infection control practices let Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) get out of control.

OPSEU, representing about 28,000 health care workers across Ontario, including 15,000 hospital professionals, told the SARS Inquiry its members were ignored and disrespected throughout the SARS crisis. Furthermore, they were asked to work with improper or no personal protective equipment, and were sent into situations where they would be at risk.

“Our members were, again and again, needlessly put in harm’s way,” said OPSEU President Leah Casselman.

OPSEU said the emphasis on economic concerns was disturbing to its members. “It was shocking to hear our members being told not to wear masks because ‘it sends out the wrong message’ at a time when no-one really knew how this disease was spread, nor how virulent SARS is,” Casselman said.

Patty Rout, Vice Chair of the Health Care Divisional Council of OPSEU, described how hundreds of diverse hospital professionals, who were virtually ignored in the directives, managed to deal with the SARS crisis in hospitals and other health facilities. Members of the OPSEU Locals at The Scarborough Hospital also spoke about daily life at TSH during the two SARS outbreaks.

OPSEU will be submitting a detailed written brief later. Its broad recommendations include the need for government and employers to:

1) Develop a workable crisis plan in all our health care facilities for dealing with contagious diseases.

2) Re-think the extent to which the “business model” has invaded our health care facilities.

3) Create full-time, permanent employment for all health care workers, not just doctors and nurses.

4) Take quick action now to stem the acute shortages of health care professionals by recruiting to the professions and encouraging retention.

5) Improve organization and communication in times of crisis, so local unions are not forced to do management’s job.

6) Respect and understand the work of all members of the health care team, not just doctors and nurses. We need to include all health care workers in the decision-making process.

7) Stop putting the economy and money before worker health and safety: If we don’t take care of health care workers’ health and safety on the job, patient care is compromised. If contagion is properly controlled, the economic issues simply go away.

8) Encourage more active involvement by the Ministry of Labour at every stage to protect the health and safety of the health care workers without whom the whole structure would collapse.

September 3, 2003 

The election choice for OPS employees: 
The ballot box or the picket line.

In Guelph-Wellington vote for Liz Sandals for a change at Queens Park to:

1) Rebuild our public service

2) Stop privatization and deregulation

3) Improve labour relations

4) Hire more Full Time Meat Inspectors

For OPS employees, the choice is clear: it’s the ballot box or the picket line.

For OPSEU's Political Action site

September 2, 2003 

On October 2 - It’s all about public services. 

Excerpts of a message to all OPSEU members from Leah Casselman, president

I think we all know that the Oct. 2 Ontario election is a crucial one.

For the last eight years, OPSEU members have suffered under a government that has failed, over and over again, to recognize the value of the public services we provide. With the Tories in power at Queen’s Park, we’ve seen mass layoffs. We’ve seen workloads rise. We’ve seen wages fall behind. And we’ve seen our communities suffer.

The Walkerton disaster showed what happens when public services are cut back until they collapse, but it’s not the only example. Far from it! Our colleges and universities are not ready for the double cohort. Our hospitals can’t keep skilled staff because of low wages and a shortage of full-time jobs. For years, critics of Tory energy policies warned that we were heading for trouble, and then, guess what?  The lights went out. 

And now... tainted meat in the Aylmer Meat fiasco - it's time to hire more full-time  Meat Inspectors and appoint them under the Public Service Act. 

No matter how you serve the people of Ontario, you’ve seen the bad effects of this government in your own workplace. Has your workplace been mauled by privatization, downloading, layoffs? Is your employer squeezing you harder to cut costs? Is service quality sinking with the Tories in charge? For virtually every OPSEU member, the answer to these questions is YES.

This election is all about public services and the people who provide them. Think back to the struggles you’ve faced since 1995. Think of what you’ve lost. Think about what your community has lost. Many of these losses could have been avoided – if only we had a government that cared.

This election is our chance to get one. That is why we are taking action now.

The OPSEU Executive Board has already made some key decisions around election strategy.

Our top priority must be to get rid of this government. OPSEU members simply cannot afford another four years with Tories at the helm. To defeat Tories, we will put resources into ridings where OPSEU members can make a difference. In some cases this means backing Liberals; in others it means backing New Democrats.

We need a government that will start to rebuild public services in Ontario. I urge all OPSEU members to work hard to defeat this government and to elect as many people as possible who share our goals.

We need to mobilize all 100,000 OPSEU members for this job.

This means volunteering to work for opposition candidates.

It means making sure every member is on the voters’ list.

It means putting up candidate signs in our front windows and on our front lawns.

It means donating money.

It means locally in Guelph-Wellington voting for Liz Sandals and urging all our friends and neighbours to do the same.

OPSEU members know all about taking action to protect public services. In this election, let’s do it one more time.

August 29, 2003 

Eves’ confusion explained: Tories moved Ag investigators to MNR in 2000
An observed lack of communication between Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) inspectors and Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) investigators is a direct result of a staff transfer ordered by the Ontario Tory government, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says.

Ontario Premier Ernie Eves observed yesterday that “there doesn’t seem to be any connection” between OMAF and MNR staff involved in the investigation of food safety problems at Aylmer Meat Packers, Inc. in Aylmer. He seemed unaware that his government had moved meat safety investigators out of OMAF and into MNR in April 2000.

For the full story

Toronto Star:
Fire ministers over meat scare: Liberals 
Premier seeks answers on meat plant
10 deadstock cases: Source
Aylmer's Customer List

August 27, 2003 

Meat inspection will be provincial election issue, OPSEU promises
The crippling of the provincial meat inspection system by seven years of cuts and attacks on meat inspectors will be a major issue in the upcoming Ontario election, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union promises.

“The Aylmer fiasco is, like Walkerton, another failure of the Tory government to protect public safety,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “After seven years of cuts and direct attacks on meat inspectors, the only surprise here is that the Aylmer recall didn’t happen sooner.”

For the full story

Toronto Star:
Eves 'disappointed' by handling of meat probe
'Deadstock' focus of meat probe 
Eves defends meat inspection system

August 11, 2003 

New well rules could endanger drinking water
New water well regulations that went into effect Aug. 1, 2003, do not meet the Walkerton Inquiry recommendations and could allow unscrupulous well contractors to have a field day, say concerned workers at the Ministry of the Environment, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

OPSEU members at the Ministry of the Environment are concerned that amendments to regulations announced last April will compromise public safety.

For the full story

July 3, 2003 

Take control over Kennedy House chaos, union tells Brenda Elliott
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is calling on Brenda Elliott, Ontario Minister of Community, Family and Children’s Services, to take direct control over operation of a young offender facility in Ajax to deal with “a dangerous, chaotic crisis in management and governance” there.

For the full story

June 13, 2003 

WOMEN AND UNIONS REACH LANDMARK $414 MILLION SETTLEMENT OF PAY EQUITY CHARTER CHALLENGE AGAINST ONTARIO GOVERNMENT
About 100,000 women in predominately female, public sector workplaces across Ontario will receive up to $414 million in pay equity funding from the Ontario Government as the result of a settlement of an Ontario Superior Court of Justice Charter application brought by five unions and four individual women. 

For the full story

May 21, 2003 

Ontario meat safety at risk from inexperienced, ill-trained inspectors, OPSEU warns
Ontario’s meat safety is at risk because dozens of inexperienced, ill-trained meat inspectors may not spot abnormal symptoms in animals being slaughtered, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union warns.

For the full story  

Apr 17, 2003 

Ignore those consent forms
The government cannot at this point require members to sign consent forms for security and credit checks.

The Grievance Settlement Board has given the union “interim relief.” This means the government has to prove its case for the necessity of these checks before it can proceed with its plan.

If anyone asks you to sign a consent form, tell them you are waiting until the GSB issues its final ruling on the matter. You are completely within your rights in taking this stand.

When the issue comes before the GSB, OPSEU will continue fighting for the privacy rights of union members. This case has a lot of life in it yet, said OPSEU President Leah Casselman.

“Obviously we are delighted with the interim relief, and we look forward to Round 2.”

On April 9, FRONTlines told members that OPSEU and other government bargaining agents intended “to challenge the employers’ position through any available means, including legal challenges, that these checks are an unreasonable invasion of an employee’s privacy, dignity and self-worth and clearly a violation of their Charter rights.”

Today’s victory is the first step in fighting against the government’s Draconian plans.

Security checks put on hold (OPSEU issued this press release)

TORONTO - The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has forced the provincial government to back off on its planned security checks on government workers, set to begin today.

Writing for the Grievance Settlement Board, chair S. L. Stewart ordered the government to stop its security and credit checks until the board deals fully with grievances arising from the plan.

“This is a very significant decision in that the board has stopped certain draconian measures which would clearly violate the fundamental privacy rights of many public servants, said Paul Cavalluzzo, lawyer for the union.

“We look forward to defending the employees’ interests when the board hears the case as to whether these measures are legitimate. Although 9-11 was tragic, it should not be an excuse to suspend our cherished civil liberties,” he said

OPSEU President Leah Casselman said she was delighted members would not be threatened with job loss if they refused to consent to the intrusions into their privacy. “We will put our strongest case in front of the GSB, and I am confident that we will win a major victory when the entire matter is considered,” she said.

In a decision released today, the GSB decided the union had an arguable case against the proposed checks, and the potential damage to union members was sufficiently serious to warrant putting the checks on hold.

“There is no way to actually reverse a fingerprinting exercise,” the GSB ruled. “The displacement of employees removed from their jobs because of a refusal to consent to a security check or because of an unsatisfactory security check can be remedied on a going forward basis, but not retroactively.

“The questioned integrity of those who may be displaced because of an unsatisfactory credit rating could not be undone,” the ruling said. “The privacy interests of the employees … clearly outweigh the interests of the employer.”

For the full text of the decision, click here.

Apr 17, 2003 

Casselman for fifth term
President Leah Casselman was re-elected for a fifth term as OPSEU’s top officer, defeating Region 4 vice-president Bob Eaton.

Convention acclaimed First Vice-President/Treasurer Smokey Thomas to a second term in the union’s other full-time elected position.

Upon his acclamation, Thomas thanked delegates for the honour and responsibility. “Two years ago, I ran on a platform of balance and that has not changed. I believe we are the greatest union in the province, in the country, across North America, and in the world. I really do.”

He called the convention the “life blood of the union” and offered a commitment to work as hard as possible for the next two years.

In her election speech, Casselman said she had seen monumental change over the last 20 years in the union, “some we struggled mightily to achieve, some was forced on us, and all challenged us to do more than we had thought we could.”

The change came because members were prepared to pay the price of taking on unjust authority, she said.

“Striking is one of the hardest things a person can ever do. To make the decision to give up pay and accept hardship for oneself and ones family with no certainty of when it will pay off is not easy.” OPSEU members have done it because the cause was just and they would not let their brothers and sisters down.

In turn, OPSEU has changed to meet members’ expectations and made hard decisions.

“I believe members want their union to play a role in the life of the province,” Casselman said. “To improve the lives of members, we must improve the condition of society. What is 20 cents more an hour worth if we lose Medicare?”

She urged a global approach. “The AIDS victim in Africa and the torture victim in Burma are our concern. We must work on environmental destruction, on justice and peace. We must fight poverty and all the ills it spawns. We will do our part to change the world. Small as it may be, it is worth doing.”

“I see us reaching beyond ourselves with the power and the will to improve all the lives around us.”

The Convention also voted on the ranking of the seven regional vice-presidents. As a result, the other members of the union’s executive committee are second vice-president Bob Eaton, Region 4, third vice-president Ron Elliot, Region 1, fourth vice-president, Chris Madill, Region 2, fifth vice-president Terry Downey, Region 5, sixth vice-president Sue Brown, Region 6, seventh vice-president Pauline Tapping, Region 3 and eighth vice-president John O’Brien, Region 7.

Convention honoured board members who had left the union’s governing body since the last convention: Bill Kuehnbaum and Will Presley from Region 6, Marie Thomson from Region 1 and Marilou Martin-Benoit from Region 5.

Convention Headlines

OPSEU adopts HIV/AIDS as an international cause

Health and Safety activists recognized

Three are made Honorary Life Members

Human rights awards honour fighters

No more scabs: Hampton
Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton promised the convention that an NDP government would again outlaw strikebreakers in Ontario.

Political action policy to 2004 convention

Black Action Defence Committee receives award

New strike policy draws on experience

Use pension money to effect change

Convention resolutions

Few changes to constitution

For the complete details 

Photo Gallery:
A pictorial report on OPSEU Convention 2003, April 3-5.

Apr 16, 2003 

Ambulance dispatchers heat up fight for wage hike
It’s time for the Ernie Eves’ government to feel the pressure again from the province’s ambulance dispatchers.

There is a staffing crisis at the province’s land and air ambulance dispatch centres. The government has told the union its staff retention rate is 30 per cent.

The government is dragging its feet on the solution: increase wages to reflect the current market rate.

This is what its own report recommended - a report the government suppressed during OPS bargaining last year.

Now, the government wants the union to trade off unrelated grievances affecting the whole OPS bargaining unit before it will discuss a wage increase for dispatchers.

The union has quite simply told the employer, no.

The grievances relate to the employer’s restriction of drug payments in two areas: generic substitution and over-the-counter drugs.

For the complete story

Better jobs campaign gets support
Laurie Chapman, a member of the last OPS bargaining team, has been booked off to work out of the union’s head office on the campaign for better jobs in the OPS. You can reach her at extension 704.

Eight other member mobilizers are working out of regional offices in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, North Bay, London, Hamilton, Kingston and Toronto.

They are searching for all the temporary and fee for service jobs in the OPS.

In every workplace, members should look around and identify all the jobs that are being done by agency staff or fee for service workers.

There was a steward’s survey attached to the April 3 FRONTlines. This must be faxed to head office by April 25. It’s at http://www.opseu.org/ops/FRONTlinesApr0303.PDF.  

The objective is to fold these temp and fee-for service jobs into the OPS. That will strengthen the union. It will also cut off the employer’s efforts to create low-wage ghettoes in the OPS - a strategy that hurts everyone.

“This is our work, and it should be done by our members,” said President Leah Casselman.

Apr 9, 2003 

OPSEU fights intrusive security checks
OPSEU is taking steps to protect OPS members from a government plan for intrusive security checks.

In late March, Management Board Secretariat (MBS) said employees working with birth certificates, driver’s licenses and health cards, and in MBS Information Technology, will have to submit to security checks or be removed from their jobs.

The security checks would include a criminal record check, a credit check, and a check to see if workers are “known to police.” About 2,000 workers would be affected right away.

Security checks may be coming to all or part of the rest of the OPS in the future. To view the employer’s PowerPoint presentation on this, click here.  

The union filed a grievance last week. We are seeking an “interim order” to put the security checks on hold until the Grievance Settlement Board (GSB) can rule on the issue. OPSEU is meeting with MBS today (Wednesday) to schedule hearings, which we hope can take place next week.

If you are forced to make a choice...
It is possible that the employer will ask OPSEU members to agree to the security checks (in writing) as early as next week. Management Board Secretariat and the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services would likely be the first targets, with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transportation following suit some time later.

If you are asked to sign an “election form,” inform your union steward immediately (stewards should inform their OPSEU staff representative).

If you refuse to sign the form, the employer will deny you security clearance and remove you from your job. You may be placed in another job that doesn’t require security checks, but so far the employer has offered zero guarantees.

The union’s goal is to deal with member concerns at the GSB before the employer hands out the election forms. However, we don’t know when the GSB will rule. If you are asked to fill out an election form, wait until the last minute before the employer’s deadline. That will give the GSB more time.

If there is no more news just before the deadline, hand in your signed election form. “Obey now, grieve later” is the safest bet. Will this approach violate your right to privacy? Yes. But it will also keep you in your job. If you have to sign, write “I am signing this under protest and without prejudice to my grievance rights” on the form.

Stay tuned for more news. A speedy GSB ruling that protects your rights is the best possible outcome.

Apr 3, 2003 

Cleaning up the OPS
Enforcement campaign aims to convert more consultant and “temp” jobs to public service positions

More and more OPSEU members in the OPS are reporting a huge rise in the number of non-bargaining-unit employees in the workplace these days. Private “fee-for-service” consultants are everywhere - doing bargaining unit work, studying what we do, even telling us what to do. At the other end of the scale, low-paid agency “temps” are working side-by-side with OPSEU members, doing the same job for less pay.

It’s a mess. And it’s time somebody cleaned it up.

This month, OPSEU is launching a major campaign to make sure bargaining-unit work is done by bargaining-unit employees - and only bargaining unit employees. OPSEU member mobilizers will be working with OPS locals to document the problem. And on April 29, we’ll use the information collected as we begin hearings into a major policy grievance at the Grievance Settlement Board (GSB).

If the person working beside you isn’t a public employee....

There are a lot of consequences when non-bargaining-unit employees do bargaining unit work:

• Every vacancy filled by a non-bargaining-unit employee is a vacancy that hasn’t been posted. It might have been your chance at a promotion or transfer.

• OPS employees are often forced to train non-bargaining unit employees. This adds to your workload.

• Private consultants get to rip off Ontario taxpayers by charging two, three or more times what it costs OPSEU members to do the same work.

• Low-paid agency “temps” get exploited. Their agency bosses need profits; they take them out of temp workers’ wages. Agency workers don’t get benefits, job security protection, or union representation.

The employer says non-bargaining unit employees allow for “flexibility” in staffing, but its flexibility on the employer’s terms only. It’s the kind of flexibility that lets managers hire underpaid, unprotected workers on the one hand - putting downward pressure on your wages - while rewarding their friends in the business world with juicy contracts on the other.

Just how widespread is the problem?

In November 2002, the Ontario Provincial Auditor reported that the province spent $662 million fee-for-service consultants in 2002 - a huge jump from $271 million in 1998. In 2001, the Ontario government spent $60 million on temporary agency staff - double the $30 million spent in 1996-97

In a survey of 387 OPS members conducted at the OPS Divisional meetings in November 2002:

• 58 per cent said the employer was using temporary agency and/or fee-for service staff in their workplace; and

• 53 per cent said the number of these non-bargaining-unit employees had increased in the last three years.

The Trillium award: a new grievance win leads the way

OPSEU’s push to clean up the OPS comes after a major grievance win last year.

In February 2002, a GSB arbitrator was asked to rule on staffing practices at the Trillium program of the Ministry of Health. In its decision, the GSB said that the collective agreement did not allow the employer to use temporary agency employees to staff its core programs on an ongoing basis.

The GSB ordered the employer to post classified positions and to stop staffing seasonal unclassified positions with agency staff.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the OPS, the employer acted as if the Trillium award didn’t exist, so some OPSEU locals filed grievances under Article 6 (posting) or Article 8 (temporary assignment) of the collective agreement. Recently, Information Technology workers at the Ministry of Public Safety and Security in North Bay won their grievance. They’ll see 16 positions brought back into the OPS. OPSEU members at the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee have had similar success.

In October 2002, OPSEU filed an OPS-wide policy grievance relating to “agency employees, fee-for service employees/consultants performing bargaining unit work.”

On April 29, the GSB will begin hearing this grievance, known as the “Bargaining Unit Integrity” grievance. So far, examples from 15 different Ministries have been identified; the remedy sought is the posting of the positions.

Join the campaign: here’s what to do

We know the employer hasn’t stopped filling OPSEU work with agency and/or fee-for-service consultants. We need even more proof than we already have. OPSEU is asking OPS locals to provide examples of where non-bargaining-unit workers are doing bargaining-unit work.

1. Conduct a scan of the workplaces in your local.

Ask your stewards to conduct a workplace scan. Map your workplace so you can identify which jobs are done by OPSEU members and which ones are being done by temporary agency employees or fee-for-service consultants.

2. Ask yourself:

• Is the temporary agency employee or fee-for-service consultant doing a job or an assignment that was previously done by an OPSEU member?

• Is the temporary agency employee or fee-for-service consultant doing a job or an assignment that is long-term, not temporary? Is this work usually done by an OPSEU member?

• Is this a job(s) that you think should be posted as an OPSEU job?

3. Fill out the report-back form.

Send it to OPSEU head office to be a part of the policy grievance. The form is available here (.pdf). Fax your completed form to 416-448-7462. Don’t fill out a grievance form. Use this special report back form to ensure you are part of the policy grievance. Please make sure your information gets to OPSEU Head office by April 25, 2003.

4. Stay tuned. Watch Frontlines for more information.

Together we can achieve our goal - better jobs in the OPS!

Mar 21, 2003

Ambulance dispatchers go for a raise
OPSEU will meet with Ontario government negotiators April 7 to discuss a wage increase for ambulance dispatchers.

“Thanks to the ambulance dispatchers’ tireless campaigning on this issue, it appears that the government may have finally woken up and realized it must solve its recruitment and retention crisis,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman.

The province has admitted that the CACCs suffer from an annual staff turnover rate of 30 per cent.

The meeting is the result of a bad faith bargaining charge OPSEU filed against the employer.

For the complete story

American Sign Language video ready soon
A new OPSEU video for use by deaf members in the OPS will be ready in time for the April 3-5 Convention. The 20-minute video uses American Sign Language to explain the basics of the OPS collective agreement and how to enforce it.

Locals who want copies should contact Mary-Anne Di Adamo by phone at 1-800-268-7376 or (416) 443-8888 (ask for extension 664) or by e-mail at mdiadamo@opseu.org .

Collective agreement on the press
The OPSEU collective agreement for the OPS will be available in book form soon. It went to print this week. Copies are expected to be ready for shipping by Convention. In the meantime, it’s still online at http://www.opseu.org/ops/collective/collective.htm

Mar 10, 2003

11 men, 10 women on the new OPSEU board
OPSEU’s 21-member Executive Board will be as close to 50-50 male-female as is possible for an odd-numbered group when the members elected Saturday take office April 5 at the close of the 2003 Convention.

The new board will have 11 men and 10 women.

New members were elected in Regions 1, 5 and 6. They are Evelyn Anger, who will replace Bob Reid; Peggy Maybury, who will replace Marilou Martin-Benoit; and Peter Wall, who will replace Bill Kuehnbaum. Martin-Benoit and Kuehnbaum did not seek re-election.

Members from the Ontario Public Service (OPS) dominate, holding 14 positions, compared with six from the Broader Public Service (BPS) and one from the Community Colleges (CAAT).

There are no changes in the Regional Vice Presidents. They, together with the president and first vice-president/treasurer who will be elected at the convention, form the union’s Executive Committee.

This year, under a change in the constitution approved at the last convention, each region also elected an alternate EBM who would take office should one of the three elected in the region be unable to complete the term.

Here are the results of the board elections for Region 2:

Region 2
Chris Madill (BPS), Local 227, Regional Vice-President; Jay Jackson (CAAT), Local 245, Alternate Vice-President; Leah Casselman (BPS), Local 213, EBM and Ed Almeida (OPS), Local 248, Alternate EBM.

For the complete results

Feb 2, 2003

Moment of silence to honour workers killed in helicopter crash
At 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, staff across the Ontario Public Service will hold a moment of silence to reflect on the deaths of four MNR employees.

Walter Ceolin, Bruce Stubbs and Chantelle Walkey were OPSEU members and Michael Maguire was a manager.

The four were conducting moose surveys north of Sault Ste. Marie when their helicopter went down.

OPSEU appreciates this opportunity to pay tribute to colleagues who lost their lives in the course of providing services to the public of Ontario, said President Leah Casselman.

Casselman points to double standard
Letter to the editor: Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Sun and National Post

I am struck by the double standard when people die in public service.

For example, when a police officer is killed, it is front page news for several days, but when four public servants die in the interests of conserving our natural resources, they rate a few paragraphs, once.

By further example, for the police, flags are at half mast across the province. For the others, the flags were lowered only at offices of the Ministry of Natural Resources and their union.

For the complete story

Tribute on Web
The OPSEU website has photos of the members who died in the accident, along with recollections from their co-workers.