OPSEU Solidarity Group

The Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, aka the Drummond Commission, is expected to release its preliminary report early in the new year and its final report in April. In the meantime, layoffs in the OPS and elsewhere are already underway.

This is no time for a dust-up within organized labour. Yet, despite the risks and challenges we face, our Executive Board has suddenly withdrawn OPSEU from the Ontario Federation of Labour. We can’t let a clash of personalities take priority over protecting those services and our members’ jobs.

Should OPSEU try and go it alone?

• Our members need the support of organized labour to help focus attention on the critical issues that face public sector workers an our communities that rely on our services.
• OPSEU needs access to all labour’s resources, including solidarity from members of other unions, and a united voice with the OFL leadership to get on the government’s case.
• And the labour movement needs OPSEU as a full and equal partner to fight for labour rights, anti-scab legislation, health and safety, human rights issues, etc.

Managing differences

• When OPSEU members do not approve of decisions made by our Executive Board, we don’t decertify, and we don’t withhold dues.  We bring our concerns to our Board members and to our annual Convention and try to democratically resolve the problems in-house.
• When OPSEU’s leadership, which has seats on the OFL board, doesn’t approve of decisions made by OFL Board, it should send its elected delegates to the OFL convention to speak up and to speak with other union members.  We resolve the problems in-house.
• And if OPSEU has problems with the current OFL leadership, it should go to the OFL convention and support an alternative candidate.

The OPSEU Constitution & Board authority

Article 10.1 of the OPSEU constitution reads as follows:

Affiliation of the Union, as a whole, to any labour, fraternal, service or other organization may be decided only by a Convention. Any and all fees and dues payable directly as a result of any affiliation so decided shall be the responsibility of the Union.

• The Executive Board does not have the authority to over-ride Convention and withhold our OFL dues. Convention where our delegates, elected directly by and accountable to the membership, are responsible for making key decisions affecting the union.
• When the Executive Board makes unconstitutional decisions, it stifles the enshrined rights of all OPSEU members.
• When OPSEU illegally withholds our dues to the OFL, it weakens the voice of labour, and it hurts every union member Ontario, including all OPSEU members.

OPSEU is gearing up for a fight for all its members’ livelihoods.  In this fight need to know who our real enemies are. They include the Government of Ontario and our bosses in every sector. Our sisters and brothers in the OFL and its affiliated unions our on our side. We need to build on this solidarity, not weaken it.

This issue affects all OPSEU members. That is why there needs to be an open and democratic debate at Convention before OPSEU takes any steps to withhold dues and pull out of the OFL.