Vulnerable Retirees Deserve Much Better
This week's Toronto Star exposé about neglect and filthy conditions at a Toronto-area retirement home highlights concerns the union has been raising about quality of care in these facilities.OPSEU members who work in retirement homes have been tel...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWall Street protests come to Ontario
Dear friends,A new people's movement is being born before our eyes.From its start in New York last month, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement has spread across the U.S. and now into Canada. Protests have been peaceful, but that hasn't s...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWe all have choices
Dalton McGuinty and Dwight Duncan had choices. People or politics. Decency or deceit. Ontario or their entourage.These choices brought predictable results. Threats of a “temper tantrum election” and the media's translation of reality fo...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWe have voted for a new kind of Ontario
Ontario's elections have demonstrated clearly that our province is mobilizing for change. People across the province are demanding good, permanent full-time jobs. We are fighting back against the draining of public coffers through corporate tax cuts,...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWe need an economic summit, now
We need an economic summit to unite the three pillars of the Ontario economy - business, labour and government - together as a team to help the ailing economy.There are all kinds of examples of progress being made when you get the right people in t...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWe’re not for sale!
When you apply privatization and outsourcing to public services it all adds up to the same thing: Profit for a few and job losses for many. Worse yet, it brings inferior services to all.Trade unions oppose privatization due to the immediate and per...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWeak regulations won’t make a strong Ontario
When former Premier Mike Harris closed public water-testing labs, he told private labs they didn't have to report ominous test results to municipalities. The Walkerton water disaster resulted. Seven people died, and 2,300 became seriously ill.When ...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWelcome to OPSEU’s 100 Year Anniversary Convention
This is a big year for OPSEU: It has been 100 years since we were first established in 1911 as the CSAO. In celebration of this centennial anniversary we are having the biggest Convention ever.Our membership has grown so much that we had to move to...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWhat Goes Around Comes Around
The wheels on the bus go round and round. The more things change the more they stay the same. The question remains, why?Why does a manufactured crisis always result in the same response from “retail” politicians? Why does it always resu...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWhat’s on your summer “to-do” list?
Summer is a great time for rest and relaxation. It is also a time to take care of all those chores that are on the sometimes dreaded “to-do” list…things we have been too busy to get done during the other nine or ten months of the y...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWhere Will OPSEU Be 2 Years From Now?
The province of Ontario has a huge problem. The 2008 world financial crisis still resonates 4 years later. Thanks to the one sided and ill-advised Drummond Report its impact is about to be amplified in communities where we live and work.Does Ontari...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWill austerity lead to prosperity?
After the 1930s depression, Canadians recognized that the growth of ungoverned capitalism and greed could destroy the future of a generation. If human dignity was fine coloured cloth, unbridled economic forces were Javex. That played a big role in un...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWisconsin in Ontario
Dear friends:Recently, The Economist magazine called on governments everywhere to declare war on public employees and their unions.“Holidays are often absurdly generous,” the magazine said. “Too many [government] workers can ret...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWorkers bear burden of provincial ‘restraint’
Toronto Star: Published on November 19, 2010A $35,000-a-year caregiver in a nursing home doesn't usually get much news coverage.She feeds our parents and grandparents. She helps them use the bathroom. She tries to enrich their final years. Somet...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWorking Together – Leading the Resistance Movement
The clouds of conflict gather as we count down to the federal and provincial budgets. The coming fight will be unlike others; waged by the privileged one per cent, motivated by greed, self-interest and a commitment to dismantle public services. The 9...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWorkplace Violence, Harassment and the OHSA
Better Health and Safety is a vital part of OPSEU's agenda. Bill 168 is new provincial legislation intended to protect against workplace tragedies. In no small measure it became law thanks to a vigorous campaign by OPSEU and other major unions who, t...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREWow: An Ice Storm in Winter!
History has a strange way of repeating itself. What happened? Shockingly, an ice storm did --- and wow --- it was during a Canadian winter! The severity of this storm caught government officials at the municipal and provincial levels flatfooted.Who...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREZeroes won’t protect public services
Dear friends,As you may know, leaders from several public sector unions and employer groups met on July 20 with Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. He invited us.The subject of the meeting was what Duncan calls “compensation restraint.&...
March 21, 2014SEE MORE2014 Vacation Contest Winner
We have a Vacation Contest winner!Tina Jamieson from OPSEU Local 447 at MPAC is the lucky winner of a $1000 Air Canada gift certificate. Warren (Smokey) Thomas and Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida chose Tina Jamieson's name from the more than 8000 entries ...
March 21, 2014SEE MOREEveryone benefits from strong pension plans
OPSEU Member Benefits: PensionsAn important new study outlines the economic impact of Canada's Defined Benefit (DB) pension funds. Unprecedented data in “Defined Benefit Pension Plans: Strengthening the Canadian Economy” demonstrates...
March 21, 2014SEE MORE