For the 60,000 OPSEU/SEFPO members who can’t strike, a new fund to invest in strong and effective bargaining

By Wendy Lee, Local 575, inSolidarity Committee If you were at Convention 2025, you heard a lot of debate about OPSEU/SEFPO’s strike fund and strike pay, and whether it’s fair to the roughly 60,000 members – me included — who have been declared an “essential service” and therefore will never be on strike and never receive strike pay. Through debate and information-sharing, delegates overwhelmingly decided that all OPSEU/SEFPO need to contribute to a healthy strike fund and decent strike pay because they ultimately all OPSEU/SEFPO members, even those who don’t have the right to strike. Speaking personally as a member who doesn’t have the right to strike – I work at the Scarborough Health Network and am a member of the Hospital Professionals Division – I’m fully in favour of contributing a portion of my dues to the members who can strike. Why? Three main reasons: 

1. Now set at as little as $450 per week, strike pay isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things, this is one of the reasons why many non-right-to-strike members like myself don’t want to dip into it. For striking workers, having food on the table and electricity in their homes really matters to their ability to run a strong strike.  
2. Strong strikes by other OPSEU/SEFPO workers strengthen my position at the bargaining table. In the labour arena, strong collective bargaining can have a ripple effect.  For example, the Arbitrator who might decide my pay increases can draw comparisons from other workers’ wins from strikes and apply those wins to the non-right-to-strike sectors.   
3. OPSEU/SEFPO’s leaders have set up a new “non-right-to-strike-fund” that is already strengthening the organizing, campaigning and bargaining in non-right-to-strike sectors like mine. 

Created last June by the Executive Board, the “Non-Right-To-Strike Fund” helps ensure all members have the strength and resources they need at the bargaining table, while also giving striking members the muscle to stage powerful and successful strikes. 

Debunking the Myths about the Strike Fund and the Non-Right to Strike Funds 

Some historic information needs to be visited before delving into this very important topic as it hits home to all of us. 

Strike Fund – What is it and how does one access it?

This fund was established to help financially support OPSEU/SEFPO members who are on strike.  It is not a wage replacement of $1 wage to $1 strike pay.  Rather it’s a small amount of financial assistance for those that walk the picket lines during bargaining.   It also covers other related expenses to strikes, lockouts and other work stoppage situations involving Union members. During Convention 2025, delegates passed a resolution to increase strike pay from $250 to $350 per week (rising to $550 per week after a strike’s fourth week).  Although this is a much needed increase, it does not appear to fully address the financial hardship that some members may incur when they are forced into a strike position. All OPSEU/SEFPO members, whether one has the right to strike or not, contribute 5% of their dues to the union’s strike fund.  There is no mechanism for non-striking members to opt out, and there should be no mechanism put in place for members to opt out.  We are a union whose philosophy is one for all and all for one. The process for how to access the strike fund is outlined in the OPSEU/SEFPO constitution under Article 23 – Strike and Defence Funds.  The wording is very specific and outlines the mechanisms on how the funds are accessed and utilized. 

Non-Right-to-Strike Fund

The Non-Right-to-Strike Fund was first proposed as a resolution at Convention 2024. But since it did not come up for debate during that Convention, it was passed up to the OPSEU/SEFPO Executive Board Members (EBMs). The idea is to invest in strong organizing, campaigning, and bargaining for members who don’t have the right to strike, and the EBMs created the fund during their June 2024 meeting. Information is on page 104 in Convention 2025 Section E.   

1. Funds for this Non-Right-to-Strike Fund were established using dues from the wage reopener and pay equity settlements for the affected sectors/bargaining units, plus 5% of general dues revenue from non-right-to-strike members to a maximum of $10 million dollars, effective Jan. 1 2025.    
2. This fund is for those members covered under the Hospital Labour Dispute Arbitration Act (HLDAA) and Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act (CECBA).  This affects bargaining units in Ambulance (Sector 1), Long-term Care (Sector 8),  Hospital Professionals (Sector 10), Hospital Support (Sector 11), Mental Heath and Addictions (Sector 18) and Blood Services and Diagnostics (Sector 19) of the Broader Public Sector (BPS) Division, and the Correctional Bargaining Unit of the Ontario Public Services (OPS) Division. 
3. The total head count between HLDAA and CECBA members is about 30% of the entire OPSEU/SEFPO membership, which translates to over 60,000 members. 

During Convention 2025, a variety of elected leaders from sectors without the right to strike spoke passionately about the importance of a strong strike fund for striking members only, especially with the new non-right-to-strike fund.   They were responding to a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would have allowed non-right-to-strike members to access the strike fund. But when it came time for delegates to vote on the amendment, it was overwhelmingly turned down with 797 opposed and 93 in favour.