BY AL CAPPE
TORONTO - "We are strong and unified. Whatever the government tries to do, we'll be ready for them," said Ron Marino, one of 100 Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) members who gathered behind a union banner April 1 and marched together into work at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre. The previous day, OPSEU members across Ontario had voted more than 90 percent in favor of accepting a new contract and ending the five-week-long strike of 55,000 public employees.
The Queen Street hospital workers, some still wearing picket signs, sang "Solidarity Forever" as they marched through the corridors. Across town, 200 office workers rallied before entering a government office complex.
The big-business daily Globe and Mail stated April 1 that the strikers dealt a "major hit" to the conservative government of Michael Harris. The Harris administration plans to cut between 13,000 and 27,000 public employee jobs and privatize a number of government services. Prior to negotiations with the union, Harris passed laws abolishing government workers' rights concerning pension eligibility and the protection of jobs and union contracts in the case of privatization.
The government's "final" contract offer, rejected by OPSEU members before the strike, sought to impose short-term layoffs, and to gut seniority by limiting "bumping" - that is the right to transfer by seniority to another job instead of being laid off. Many workers said the offer was a slap in the face and that Harris was on a union-busting course.
"The master plan was to break us. To rush us into a strike, defeat us, and make us a lesson to other unions," said Isan, an OPSEU striker who participated in a demonstration March 28 against cuts in compensation for injured workers.
OPSEU members walked out February 26. The union officials did not challenge the layoffs but advanced demands concerning severance pay, bumping procedures, pensions, and the impact of privatization. It was the first strike in the union's history and the first walkout for many of its members. "The government thought people would cross the picket line in droves and that it would be able to break the union," said Winston Walkes, a nurse at Queen Street Mental Health Centre, where only seven out of l,000 workers crossed the picket line.
On March 18, in the midst of mass picketing by thousands of OPSEU strikers and other unionists at the legislature and government offices, Harris sent the provincial police riot squad against the strikers. Several workers were injured and two were taken to the hospital.
The police attack made the strikers even more determined and sparked outrage among working people across the province. The following week the government agreed to a settlement. It then demanded reprisals against certain strikers, but backed off when the union resisted.
According to a union bulletin summarizing the new contract, it contains improvements over the government offer rejected by the strikers.
There is "enhanced severance pay," "improved bumping" procedures, "short-term layoffs are not permitted," and there are some new "provisions that allow laid-off workers near early retirement to reach their unreduced pension." In regards to privatization, "the government must make reasonable efforts to ensure that [OPSEU] members are offered jobs with the new employer with comparable terms and conditions of employment."
"This probably means I'm more likely to be bumped," said Andrew Male. "But I support it because it's more just."
"The first offer was an insult" said Danielle Larmand, a nurse at Queen Street hospital. "We've kept our dignity. Now at least there's a little more protection for our jobs than before."
" `Reasonable efforts' doesn't mean a lot," said Andy Watson, interviewed after voting. He expressed the view of some workers who said there was little protection against privatization and layoffs.
"When we started, most didn't know what a strike was. Now we know that we're workers and they're management. The lines between us are very distinct," said Nicki, a nurse at Queen Street.
"With all the labor unrest you're going to see a lot more OPSEU members out on picket lines like this," said Barb, an OPSEU striker who picketed the Woodbine Racetrack March 30 with members of the Service Employees International Union locked out by management there.
"Even before the strike I decided to get out to Kitchener," said Male, referring to the April 19 day of protest in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge planned by the Ontario Federation of Labor. Kitchener is the third in a series of anti-cutbacks demonstrations and work stoppages.
Al Cappe is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 5338. USWA members Steve Penner and Joanne Pritchard contributed to this article.