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“It has been proven that not only is privatization destructive to public services, it’s also an inefficient way to spend taxpayer dollars.” — Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU President
Toronto (29 March 2019) — Enthusiasm was bubbling as members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) gathered this week to launch the union’s new campaign Together to Win: Uniting for a Fair Ontario.
Organizing to save Ontario
The campaign against the Ford government’s policies was unveiled on the eve of a conference organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), where members from many unions gathered to strategize.
“Doug Ford will leave no stone unturned when it comes to privatizing public services,” Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU President told the plenary meeting. “It has been proven that not only is privatization destructive to public services, it’s also an inefficient way to spend taxpayer dollars.”
Public campaign alerts Ontarians to damage being done by government
The Together to Win campaign will give resources to OPSEU/NUPGE’s regions across the province to raise awareness about the Ford government’s destructive agenda to cut public services, erode employment standards and increase privatization.
“We have a premier who doesn’t care about Ontario, but we care,” said Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida,OPSEU First Vice-President/Treasurer, to the crowd of about 200. “We control the kind of Ontario we want.”
The plenary was attended by OPSEU/NUPGE executive and members from around the province and featured Larry Brown, the President of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), as the guest speaker.
OPSEU/NUPGE hosted the Sunday night meeting ahead of an OFL conference on Monday, which brought together OPSEU/NUPGE and other democratic unions, labour allies and activists to fight the Doug Ford government’s destructive agenda by putting pressure on backbench Conservative MPP’s. NDP leader Andrea Horwath spoke to the crowd and several MPPs from the NDP were also in attendance.