Every year, on April 28th, we pause and remember all the workers who have been killed or seriously injured on the job.  The OPSEU Health and Unit expounds further on the meaning and significance of this day.

Labour Councils across Ontario host ceremonies to mark this solemn occasion.  You can find a list of them here.

Locally, you have a lot of options to attend:

• The Waterloo Regional Labour Council invites you to Victoria Park in Kitchener at the Workers Memorial Monument from 10:30am-11:30am
• Guelph & District Labour Council invites you to Goldie Mill Park in Guelph at 5:30pm
• Orangeville & District Labour Council invites you to the flagpole in front of Orangeville Town Hall at 12:15pm.

And of course, at CMHAWWD we will all observe a minute of silence at 11:00am on Thursday.

However you choose to honour the brothers and sisters lost to, gravely injured at, or made ill from conditions at work, let us all be galvanized to action toward improving our working conditions, and the working conditions of all.

As you read on our forums, there was heightened awareness and much discussion at Convention  last week with regards to sexual harassment and discrimination. 

Delegate and President, Ruth reports: The emergency resolution brought to the convention floor today [April 15] was to ask OPSEU delegates to consider the creation of an ad hoc task force including "an external independent consultant to conduct a review of OPSEU's harassment and discrimination policies, complaint reporting processes, and workplace culture..."

This resolution was brought to the floor as a result of some members making allegations of a "toxic work environment" existing in the Union "including allegations of systematic sexual harassment experienced by staff, culminating in sexual assault charges against one former staff member."  This article references these allegations.

This resolution was passed by the delegates by 98.7%.

We will never be silent about harassment and discrimination of any kind.

With the establishment of our Local Equity Committee we ensure that we are responsible to upholding our Statement of Respect and addressing any concerns that may come forward from our members.

**UPDATE** Cupe 4325 have ratified a three year deal that runs to March 2018

Wow.  This is bold.  No money for frontline staff wage increases, and management gorges on ANNUAL INCREASES.  This isn't working magic on numbers to make it look like what it isn't (in fact, that's management's specialty, isn't it?).  No, this is based on easily accessible and publicly available information searched quickly from the sunshine lists. 

Here's what a few minutes time yielded:

And they only show the annual increases for management positions paid over 100 thousand!  How much more money was spent on management salaries while telling front line for years past and the years to come that they can give zero increases?
Oh, and by the way, management asked workers to accept a deal without providing the details of the package!  What kind of negotiating is that?

So what can we do?

Plenty.
On Twitter? Tweet your support. 
On Facebook? Post something in support.
Got email? Sign the petition.

And let's join our brothers and sisters on the picket line.  They're holding a solidarity rally on Thursday April 14th at noon at 275 Eramosa Rd, Guelph to tell management to get back to the table and negotiate a fair deal.

The Local Executive Committee will be meeting on Wednesday June 8th for a training session on Advanced Grievance Handling.
This is timely as the latest committee to be created for our Local is the Grievance Committee!
Interested?  Comment below

Our Local Executive Officers are pleased to be hosting another planning meeting.  On Wednesday May 11th, all officers, stewards, committee members, and members interested in joining a committee are invited to come for dinner and to discuss where we're at and where we want to go.
If you haven't been invited to attend and you'd like to be a part of this meeting, please email info@opseulocal291.com to register.
Dinner will be served!!!