Toronto – Ontario Public Service (OPS) workers in the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) are set to vote June 20-22 on a four-year collective agreement extension.
The Ontario government put forward the extension offer on June 2. The offer contains a number of wage and other improvements and demands no concessions of public service employees, but does not take effect unless it is ratified by the parties.
The current OPSEU collective agreement in the OPS is set to expire December 31, 2017. Collective bargaining had been expected to begin this fall.
At an emergency meeting of OPS local presidents June 10, OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas called the rollover offer “without precedent in OPSEU’s history.”
“It must go to the members for a vote,” Thomas told the meeting. “How would you go back to your membership and say to them, ‘The government made an offer and we decided you weren’t going to see it and didn’t get to have your say’?”
The extension offer is really two offers, one for OPSEU’s Correctional bargaining unit, and one for the larger Unified bargaining unit. Full details of both are available on the OPSEU website at http://opseu.org/news/opseu-members-ops-vote-june-20-22-employer-rollover-offer.
OPSEU represents 36,000 workers in the OPS.
For more information: Warren (Smokey) Thomas, 613-329-1931