Provincial public service asked to reject offer

More than 800 Sault members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) are being asked to reject a contract offer from the provincial government.

"This offer is meant to allow the Tories to carry on their program of destruction," OPSEU president Leah Casselman said this afternoon, announcing that her union's bargaining teams are asking their 45,000 unionized workers to reject the offer when it comes to a provincewide vote on Feb. 26, 27 and 28.

Casselman expressed concern about the proposed agreement's provisions for contracting out and wages.

"Whether we look at the provincial auditor's reports or the Walkerton Inquiry, it's clear that this government doesn't have a clue what it's doing with privatization," Casselman said in a written release.

"They're paying consultants two, three, and more times what it would cost to have accountable public employees doing the same work. In some cases they're putting people's lives at risk. Yet they've completely ignored our call for a moratorium on contracting out. "On wages, they don't seem to care that skilled, experienced people are bailing out of the public service as fast as they can," Casselman said. "How can we attract technologists to work in public health labs, for example, when community hospitals are paying 20 per cent more? We can't."

OPSEU has eight locals in Sault Ste. Marie. Their members work at places including the Courthouse, the Sault Jail, Community and Social Services, Northern Treatment Centre and the Ministry of the Environment.

The agreement for OPSEU's 45,000 members province-wide expired at the end of December.

The earliest date on which the union could find itself in a legal strike position is March 13.

Casselman has previously said that if OPSEU members reject the government's offer, she wants to nonetheless negotiate a collective agreement early next month.

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