Enthusiasm was bubbling as OPSEU members gathered this week to launch the union’s new campaign “Together to Win: Uniting for a fair Ontario.”
The campaign against the Ford government’s policies was unveiled on the eve of a conference organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour where members from many unions gathered to strategize.
“Doug Ford will leave no stone unturned when it comes to privatizing public services,” OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas told the OPSEU plenary meeting on Sunday night. “It has been proven that not only is privatization destructive to public services, it’s also an inefficient way to spend taxpayer dollars.”
“Together to Win” will give resources to OPSEU’s regions across the province to raise awareness about the Ford government’s destructive agenda to cut public services, erode employment standards and increase privatization.
“We have a premier who doesn’t care about Ontario, but we care,” said OPSEU First Vice-President/Treasurer Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida to the crowd of about 200. “We control the kind of Ontario we want.”
The plenary was attended by OPSEU executive and members from around the province and featured Larry Brown, the president of the National Union of Public and General Employees, as the guest speaker.
OPSEU hosted the Sunday night meeting ahead of an Ontario Federation of Labour conference on Monday, which brought together OPSEU and other democratic unions, labour allies and activists to fight the Doug Ford government’s destructive agenda by putting pressure on backbench Conservative MPP’s. NDP leader Andrea Horwath spoke to the crowd and several NDP MPP’s were also in attendance.
Sunday night
Indigenous elder Tina Stevens opened the meeting.
Guest speaker Larry Brown, president of the National Union of Public and General Employees, addresses the crowd.