TORONTO – Members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union are taking their frustration over government policies to the annual meeting of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s riding association.
Date: Tuesday, April 14
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Library, Marc Garneau Collegiate, 135 Overlea Blvd, Toronto
“It is not just trying to bargain a contract with a government that insists on two years of zero increases – on top of two previous years of zero raises,” said the union’s Toronto area vice president Myles Magner.
“It’s that the Liberals have wasted literally billions on privatization and P3 scams, and they are trying to pay for that ineptitude by taking it out of the pockets and purses of their employees.”
The union has been taking that message to MPPs and to the public for several months, as the government’s hard-line bargaining stance seems designed to push the union into a strike.
Union President Warren (Smokey) Thomas pointed to the provincial auditor general’s report saying government had spent $8 billion more on privatization and P3 arrangements than it would have cost to do the work in house.
“Public services are better and cheaper than the profit-oriented private sector, but the people who gain by privatization are often the same people who make generous political contributions,” he said. “Privatization works very well for them, but not for us ordinary taxpayers who have to cover the extra $8 billion.”
“It is not just OPSEU members who should be angered by this mismanagement. It’s every citizen of the province who hasn’t received a plum P3 contract – and that’s just about everyone,” said Magner.