Nov 29, 2004

Local 232 General Meeting

December 3, 2004 at 12 Noon

Room 206 - 1 Stone Road Complex (Guelph)

Agenda:	Election of Delegates to Jan 22/23 OPS Divisional Meeting
	Bargaining Update - Doug Peebles Region 2 Rep on the Bargaining Team

 Pizza & Pop Provided

 

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November 26, 2004

The Source
November 26, 2004 - Issue 1 of "The Source": the factual report from your OPS bargaining teams.  The clock is ticking. Government claims legal right to use SCABS during a strike/lockout. Member mobilizers integral to bargaining.  Black Tuesdays.  Team profile: Marg Simmons, John Watson.

for complete pdf copy of this edition.

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November 16, 2004

Member mobilizers get to work as contract talks approach

Some 36 OPSEU member mobilizers are now on the job and coming soon to OPS workplaces.

The mobilizers are key links between OPSEU bargaining teams and members. Mobilizers provide updates to locals, take member feedback to the bargaining teams, and work directly with locals on creative activities to build support for the teams.

In this round, “creative activities” could involve everything from workplace action to lobbying MPPs. Right now, mobilizers are asking members to complete a brief survey called “It’s time to put a face on public services.” The survey will collect information that can help explain to politicians and the public the vitally important work OPSEU members do.

Member mobilizer contact info

Guelph  (519) 837-3330 1-800-265-2660
Hamilton  (905) 525-5527 1-800-263-8827

Phone poll seeks your input

OPSEU members in the OPS may get a phone call from a polling company this week. The union has hired Viewpoints Research to survey OPSEU members to ask a series of questions related to OPS bargaining. If you are called, please take a few minutes to respond. The poll is one of many methods the union is using to listen to members and get their input as contract talks draw near.

for complete pdf copy of this edition.

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October 4, 2004

OPS bargaining teams elected

OPSEU bargaining teams for the upcoming round of OPS contract negotiations have now been elected.

The two-step process wrapped up on Saturday, Oct. 2 when delegates to the Central Bargaining Conference elected team members to represent unclassified workers and those in the Administrative, Office Administration, Institutional & Health Care, and Technical/Operational & Maintenance categories.

Delegates to the regional bargaining conferences held Sept. 18 had already elected one central team member from each OPSEU region, as well as the Corrections category bargaining team.

OPSEU OPS bargaining teams, October 2004

Central/Unified team:

Marg Simmons (Chair), Central Enforcement and Renewal Committee
Linda Thibert, OPSEU Region 1
Doug Peebles, Region 2
Kathleen Demareski, Region 3
Rhéal Delaquis, Region 4
Paul Myers, Region 5
Eric Morin (Vice-Chair), Region 6
John Watson, Region 7
Bob Houston, Administrative category
Brian Chauvin, Corrections category
Carl Thibodeau, Institutional & Health Care category
Sandra Noad, Office Administration category
Beth Anich, Office Administration category
Ken Fraser, Technical/Operational & Maintenance category
Moira Cowan, Unclassified members

Corrections team:

Jack Hopkins, OPSEU Region 1
Barry Scanlon, Region 2
Glenna Caldwell, Region 3
Rob Curran, Region 4
Dave Graves, Region 5
Joe Wright, Region 6
Len Mason, Region 7

for a complete pdf copy of this edition.

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Aug 30, 2004

Local 232 Demand Set Meeting

September 8, 2004 at 5:00 pm

Room 405 - 1 Stone Road Complex (Guelph)

 Pizza & Pop Provided

June 2, 2004

Bargaining Surveys mailed - also available online
It's a bargaining year - TableTalk has been mailed out to all OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service. Locals are to set a deadline (of June 15-17) for the survey to be returned to the Local President and/or your Steward. Local Demand Setting meetings must take place sometime between September 7 to 17.

for TableTalk and the Bargaining Survey

for the Bargaining 2004 Index

Local 232 Stewards: 

Emily Hitchcock - President  Mitch Nagel - Vice President  Diane Green  Doug Peebles  Phil Regli  Kathleen Salazar  Carolyn Vining

Marjorie Matthews  Peter Roberts  Brenda McCabe Debbie Scott Nasim Kanji Andrea Gomirato

May 28, 2004

Grievance victory drops drug deductible to $3
Benefits, other contract rules clarified

The deductible that OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service pay for drug prescriptions is dropping to $3 (down from $5).

The change results from a settlement between the union and the Ontario government, signed last week. The settlement relates to several grievances and a pair of complaints at the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

“Resolving these issues was a bit of an acid test for the Liberal government,” said Terry Baxter, OPSEU negotiator for the Ontario Public Service. “They have demonstrated the ability and the desire to resolve matters in dispute. Of course the real test will come this fall when contract negotiations begin.”

Details of the overall settlement, plus a number of related rulings at the Grievance Settlement Board (GSB), are summarized in this edition of FRONTlines.

for the full details.

April 17, 2004

Convention 2004 - to read all the highlights from this year's convention -

Exposing the Truth; Building the Alternative
Click here for the presentation on Public Private Partnerships In Ontario.

March 31, 2004

Transcripts of meat inspection review now available on web.

to read transcripts of the March 24 presentations to the Haines Review in Peterborough, including those by OPSEU.

to read the March 31 presentations to the Haines Review in London. 

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OPSEU's Recommendations to the Meat Regulatory and Inspection Regimes in Ontario chaired by the Honorable Justice Roland Haines.

to read OPSEU's written submission to the Haines Review

A report from the Review Hearings

OPSEU presented the judicial review with 43 Recommendations calling for more classified inspectors, better back-up from OMAF management, improved training, and whistleblower protection. Based upon extensive research, surveys and hundreds of hours of conversations with front-line staff in the food safety chain, the reports seeks to rebuild the meat inspection system within OMAF.

OPSEU representatives spoke at the public hearings in Peterborough and London. In Peterborough, Justice Haines heard from Leah Casselman, OPSEU president that front-line inspectors in Ontario must get just as much support from their chain of command as police officers get from theirs. She said that Ontario needs more full-time inspectors and unclassified inspectors need minimum hours guaranteed. Inspectors need guaranteed hours to ensure they don't lost their job for enforcing the law. In London, Ron Elliot, Region 1 Vice-president said we need a new culture of enforcement at OMAF. Elliot pointed out that as and occupational health and safety inspector, "I've issues stop work orders to some of the largest employers in south western Ontario. I am invariably backed up by my managers. I believe OMAF has goals other than enforcement." He told Justice Haines that if we want quality to guarantee food safety then the people who are eye-witnesses to everything that government does must have the ability to speak freely and know that they will not be punished for it. Whistle-blowing protection has to be built into the Food Safety and Quality Act.

The Justice listened carefully to meat inspectors Brian Burdick and Robert Lowry tell their stories about the need for secure jobs, back-up and more training. Doug Peebles, OPSEU chair of the Ministry Enforcement and Renewal Committee, outlined how OMAF needs to be restructured so that food safety is a top priority. Its time for a new division solely dedicated to food safety and, not industry competitiveness. Inspectors need a champion - a new Chief Inspector would help fulfill that role.

Justice Haines will submit his report on June 30 to the Attorney-General.

Here's some of the press coverage of the OPSEU submission to the review

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News
/2004/04/01/403770.html  

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News
/2004/03/25/394667.html  

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServ
er?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=
971358637177&c=Article&cid=1080774614456  

March 24, 2004

Meat inspectors need more backup to keep food safe, OPSEU says

PETERBOROUGH - Provincial meat inspectors need more support from senior management if they are to keep the food supply safe, their union says.

“In order to protect food safety, front-line meat inspectors in Ontario must get just as much support from their chain of command as police officers get from theirs,” said Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. “Right now, that’s not happening, and it has to change.”

Casselman made the remarks today to the Meat Inspection Review being conducted by Justice Roland Haines.

“It is an all-too-frequent occurrence that when an inspector stops a kill, senior management [at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food] instructs the inspector to back off,” she said. “We can’t afford to put short-term business success ahead of food safety.”

OPSEU made a total of 43 recommendations to the Haines Review. Among other things, the union believes OMAF should:

• require managers to support all enforcement decisions of inspectors unless the manager is physically present to make a ruling;

• provide more flexible enforcement tools for inspectors, such as the ability to issue tickets for minor infractions the way public health inspectors do;

• provide more extensive and ongoing training for inspectors;

• hire 40 more inspectors; and

• publish the enforcement records of each provincially-inspected abattoir, including the results of annual audits.

The union is also calling on the Review to recommend elimination of conflicts of interest that interfere with enforcement. Fifty-seven of 128 provincial meat inspectors are contract employees who may find themselves in situations where, if they enforce the law, they do not get paid. For example, in an abattoir that is shut down because of a bad water sample, a contract inspector assigned to that plant would be out of work until the plant re-opened.

“An enforcement system that fires the police officer for catching lawbreakers doesn’t make any sense,” said Casselman. “Meat inspectors need permanent full-time positions so their job status doesn’t conflict with the performance of their duties.”

February 23, 2004

OPSEU message on taxes hits home

Is it time to restore taxes in Ontario to rebuild public services?

More and more Ontarians are saying “yes” since OPSEU put the issue on the agenda last month.

Tax talk was definitely out in the open at the Ontario Liberal general meeting in Windsor this weekend. During the first plenary session, one Liberal challenged the Premier in front of 800 delegates, asking why the party wasn’t talking about restoring taxes. In breakout discussions, grassroots Liberals were asking, “Why not the tax option?”

Executive Board Members Gino Franche and Evelyn Anger joined Local 143 president Marisa Forsyth and Legislative Liaison Tim Little to get the OPSEU message out. They put OPSEU literature in the hands of every delegate over the weekend.

Toronto Star on board

Canada’s largest newspaper has endorsed OPSEU’s position on taxes in three editorials in the last nine days. “It’s a revenue problem,” the Toronto Star said today. Editorials last week noted that Tory tax cuts accounted for “the entire fiscal mess [Premier McGuinty] finds himself in…. To make Ontario a better place to live requires that everyone make a contribution, not just those who are on the public payroll.”

OPSEU president Leah Casselman agreed. “We are willing to pay our fair share to rebuild public services, but we’ll do it on our tax bills, not at the bargaining table,” she said.

Casselman made the case for restoring taxes in an opinion piece published in the Star last Tuesday. Read it at http://www.opseu.org/rebuild/torstarfeb17.htm.  

The Star sells 460,000 copies a day.

 

“People in London were pretty damn vocal”

Perhaps the best endorsement yet of OPSEU’s position came from participants at a “town hall” meeting in London on Wednesday night, Feb. 18.

The town hall meetings the government has organized to talk about the budget aren’t supposed to discuss restoring taxes, but participants in London didn’t care.

“People in London were pretty damn vocal,” said Lynne Easter-Froats, president of OPSEU Local 116 at the Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex. “We talked about the need to raise taxes, particularly as it related to rebuilding public services. That was the general consensus.”

Teachers, nurses, and even bankers were on side with restoring taxes, she said. One passionate speaker said that “it costs more money to maintain poverty than it does to eliminate it. We don’t have a deficit crisis in this province, we have a social crisis.”

Easter-Froats, Local 102 president Jayne McKenzie, and Local 101 president Ann Tavares handed out the OPSEU leaflet, “Basic arithmetic,” which was praised as a “fabulous” resource and was on every table.

Also in attendance were three Liberal MPPs: Chris Bentley, from London West; Deb Matthews, from London North Centre; and Laurel Broten, from Etobicoke-Lakeshore. Bentley, the Minister of Labour, sits at the Cabinet table. Broten is Parliamentary Assistant to Premier Dalton McGuinty. Matthews was elected president of the Liberal party at the Windsor meeting this weekend. OPSEU’s message is definitely getting around.

More town halls to come

The government plans five more town hall meetings in the days ahead: in Etobicoke Feb. 24, in Hamilton Feb. 25, in Kitchener-Waterloo March 2, in Strathroy March 4, and in Ottawa on a date to be decided. You are supposed to register beforehand. Phone 1-866-608-4824 to do so.

Some Liberal MPPs may also be holding consultations of their own. Call your MPP’s office to find out.

For more information on other consultations, visit http://www.townhallontario.gov.on.ca.  

Fill out the survey on line

If you can’t make it to one of the town hall meetings, you can fill out the survey on line. Go to http://www.townhallontario.gov.on.ca/english/survey.asp.  Feel free to give the answers you want - even if the survey asks the wrong questions.

Get involved - and get active!

The next provincial budget will not be tabled for another six to eight weeks. There is still plenty of time for OPSEU members to influence the government’s course. Use the OPSEU web site at www.opseu.org to send a message to your MPP or a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Just click on the big red button that says, “Rebuild our Public Services - Join the Campaign.”

To find out how you can do more to promote OPSEU’s message, contact the OPSEU Executive Board campaign coordinator for your region. Contact information is listed at http://www.opseu.org/rebuild/coordinators.htm. 

February 11, 2004 

Ready, set, communicate! McGuinty fires starting gun on OPSEU lobby campaign

If you needed a signal, that was it.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty walked out of a Cabinet meeting this morning to call on public employees to tone down demands for better wages and working conditions.

“This is the clearest sign yet that the Liberals see a direct connection between the Ontario budget and the household budgets of OPSEU members,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “If the McGuinty government solves its budget problems by cutting costs, it’s coming out of our hides.”

The government is acting as if its expenses are too high, Casselman said, when in fact revenues are too low.

“After two years of cuts under the NDP and eight years of cuts under the Conservatives, Ontario does not have a spending problem,” she said. “If the Conservatives didn’t cut it, it couldn’t be cut.

“The real problem in Ontario’s finances is a revenue problem caused by the Mike Harris and Ernie Eves tax cuts.”

Tory tax cuts will take a total of $13.3 billion out of government coffers in the 2003-04 fiscal year. That’s more than twice the projected deficit of $5.6 billion.

Get the message out

Now is the time for OPSEU members to contact their Liberal MPPs, Casselman said.

“It’s time for the Liberals to think outside the box Mike Harris built and restore taxes to a level where we can really rebuild public services,” she said. “It’s time to get that message to every MPP, and our friends and neighbours, too.”

Go to the web

A brand new section on the OPSEU web site has everything you need to know about the province’s finances and the tools to make it easy to get the message out. Go to www.opseu.org and click on the red button that says, “Rebuild our Public Services.”

Download the leaflet

Our new tri-fold leaflet, “Basic arithmetic,” has the arguments in favour of restoring taxes to rebuild public services. If you need more detail, read http://www.opseu.org/news/AxFax98/remarks.htm  and the two papers from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Contact your MPP

To contact your MPP directly by e-mail, phone, or mail, go to http://www.opseu.org/rebuild/contactmpp.htm  to get contact information. Don’t know who your MPP is? Find out here.

Send a letter to the editor

It’s easy to send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper from http://www.opseu.org/rebuild/lettertoeditor.htm.  The web site lists e-mail addresses for over 300 editors. Follow the links to fill out the letter template and click on the address of the newspaper in your community.

Contact your Board member

To plug yourself in to the campaign to lobby MPPs face-to-face, contact the OPSEU coordinator for your region, listed at http://www.opseu.org/rebuild/coordinators.htm.  

February 4, 2004

Have your say on the budget
Sign up for town hall meetings NOW

OPSEU is urging all members to register to attend government-sponsored “town hall” meetings aimed at getting citizen input into the 2004-05 Ontario budget.

The evening meetings are slated for eight Ontario cities between Feb. 9 and March 11.

“OPSEU members cannot afford not to attend these meetings,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “These meetings are an important part of the new Liberal government’s public relations strategy. If they see the wind blowing in favour of rebuilding public services, they will have a very tough time selling the idea of more cuts.

“On the other hand, I have no doubt that many disgruntled Tories will be there to call for more tax breaks and more cuts to public services,” Casselman said. “We can’t let these backward thinkers have the stage to themselves.”

Casselman outlined a plan plan to rebuild public services when she spoke to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs on Jan. 28.

“Ontario has a revenue problem, not an expense problem,” she told the committee. “If we have to restore tax levels to rebuild our public services, then we should do it.

“It is idiotic to deepen the public service crisis when the problem lies on the revenue side.”

Most of the town hall meetings will take place in the evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Meetings are scheduled as follows:

• Kingston Feb. 9
• Thunder Bay Feb. 10
• London Feb 17
• Etobicoke Feb. 24
• Hamilton Feb. 25
• Kitchener-Waterloo March 2
• Strathroy March 4
• Ottawa March 11

You must register to participate. Call 1-866-608-4824 to get your name on the list (TTY: 1-800-268-7095).

There will only be 100 participants selected per city, on a first-come, first-served basis, according to staff at the call centre.

“Pick up the phone right now,” Casselman advised. “If you wait, it may be too late.”

The government has set up a one-page web site at http://www.townhallontario.gov.on.ca  to provide information on the process.

January 28, 2004 

Restoring Taxes - Everyone pays their fair share to rebuild Public Services
Ontario’s Liberal government should restore taxes to “civilized levels” if that’s what it takes to rebuild the province’s shattered public services, OPSEU president Leah Casselman told a government committee hearing in London today.

“Ontario has a revenue problem, not an expense problem,” Leah Casselman told the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. “If we have to restore tax levels to rebuild our public services, then we should do it.

“It is idiotic to deepen the public service crisis when the problem lies on the revenue side.”

Government revenues for 2003-04 are forecast to be $13.3 billion lower than they would have been if the Harris-Eves tax cuts had not been implemented, Casselman noted. The government has many options for raising revenues in addition to restoring tax levels, she said, such as:

• collecting unpaid corporate taxes and closing corporate tax loopholes;
• hiring more tax auditors;
• reducing the use of high-priced consultants in the Ontario Public Service;
• reducing staff caseloads at the Family Responsibility Office to help get more families off welfare;
• improving accountability at provincially-funded transfer payment agencies;
• abolishing the Ontario Innovation Trust, a $500-million slush fund created by former Finance Minister Jim Flaherty; and
• ending exemptions to the Employer Health Tax.

“By adopting these measures, the Liberals could certainly hold any tax increase to a few per cent,” Casselman said. “Most Ontarians wouldn’t even notice the change.

“Chopping public services is simply not an option,” she said. “One thing we know about the Tories is this: if they didn’t cut it, it couldn’t be cut.”

To read the full text of Casselman’s remarks today, click here

Casselman urged OPSEU members to get the union’s message out by any means possible.

“Talk to your friends and family, write letters to the editor, call in to radio phone-in shows,” she advised. “If you are in the Ontario Public Service, get your ideas in to the government’s ‘Ideas’ campaign. If the Liberals’ ‘citizens’ juries’ come to your town, figure out how to participate.”

Board members to coordinate lobby

The OPSEU Executive Board has authorized a campaign to lobby all 79 Liberal and NDP MPPs in February, while the government is making plans for next year’s budget.

“Public services depend on government revenues,” Casselman said. “If the government doesn’t take action to rebuild revenues, they won’t be rebuilding public services any time soon, and for OPSEU members, the situation at the bargaining table won’t improve. We have had too many years where employers thought that zero, zero and zero was a reasonable wage offer. That has to end, and we have to lobby to end it.”

Contact your regional Board members to get plugged in to the lobby campaign.

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For previous postings from 2003 -

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