Ontario, Civil Service Workers Reach Deal Union Wins Job Security As Government Privatizes

Ontario’s conservative government and its biggest union reached a tentative deal Friday to end the province’s first civil service strike.

About 50,000 members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union could begin returning to work as early as Monday after five weeks on picket lines, much of it in bitterly cold weather.

But the return will be short-lived for many. The government plans to chop at least 13,000 jobs in cost-cutting efforts to trim a $7.33 billion deficit.

The strike, the first since the civil service was given the right by the previous, left-of-center government, has hobbled or halted dozens of services across the province.

Highways weren’t plowed as quickly as usual, 290 small slaughter-houses had to close because there were no meat inspectors and psychiatric patients received minimal treatment.

Jails have also been a flash point, with inmates flooding cells and lighting fires to protest lengthened confinement in their cells.

Strikers wanted better job protection and severance provisions, as the government cuts its work force and privatizes some government functions.

Some key elements of the accord, according to government and union sources:

Employers who take over privatized services must make reasonable efforts to offer jobs to union members, with comparable wages and benefits. They should also hire them on the basis of seniority.

Laid-off workers can “bump” less-senior employees in their ministry anywhere in Ontario.