THUNDER BAY -- Provincial public sector employees feel the government is walking all over them.
But the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union and the 38,000 people it represents are ready for a fight, says Neil MacDonald, a prison guard and the union’s Region 7 corrections mobilize said.
The union represents around 1,400 of those workers locally. Around 25 OPSEU members rallied outside of the provincial building on Red River Road Tuesday to support bargaining units as negotiations are underway with contracts expiring at the end of the year.
The proposed contract as it stands, is unacceptable MacDonald said.
“The offer is completely unacceptable. They want to roll back and take back things that we have fought for for years,” he said.
“There’s no way that our members are going to agree to this.”
Reducing sick days and changing benefits are a couple of examples MacDonald highlights.
For correctional officers, they face harsh conditions every day. If inmates are sick, the guards get sick too.
“I couldn’t do it justice just by trying to explain (a guard’s job),” he said. “ (The province) doesn’t want to show their respect to us.”
The union is also protesting proposed privatization in parts some sectors like Service Ontario and Ministry of Natural Resources. MacDonald said handing the private sector public services always costs the province more in the long run as it loses revenue.
“The private sector can’t run public service as well as the public service can,” he said.
As for whether the rally will work, MacDonald said the union would strike if it has to although they don’t want to.
“They can’t turn their backs on us because they’re not ready for that kind of fight,” he said.
“We will fight the government every step of the way until we get a contract that we feel is fair and respects the job that we as OPSEU members do for the province of Ontario.”
