Founded 1911 Affiliation CLC, NUPGE | Members 130,000 Office location Toronto, Ontario | |
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Full name Ontario Public Service Employees Union Head union Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president | ||
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is a trade union representing more than 130,000 members in the province of Ontario, Canada. The current president is Warren (Smokey) Thomas, who was first elected to the position in 2007. Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida is the union’s First Vice-President/Treasurer.
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Most OPSEU members work in the public sector: in the Ontario Public Service, in municipalities and various agencies in the broader public sector, and in the public Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs). A growing number of members work for private companies that have contracted with public sector entities, e.g., hospitals.
OPSEU was established in 1975 as the successor union to the former Civil Service Association of Ontario, which was founded in 1911. In 1979, OPSEU affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress, the National Union of Public and General Employees, and the Ontario Federation of Labour. OPSEU is affiliated to several labour councils across Ontario.
OPSEU represents workers in the following sectors:
OPSEU members are supported by more than 350 union staff who:
OPSEU staff work at 20 regional offices around Ontario and at two head office sites.
OPSEU’s governance is based on democratic principles. Delegates elected by locals meet annually in convention to debate policy, adopt budgets, and set the union’s course for the following year. Elections for the union’s 21-member Executive Board and for the positions of President and First Vice-President/Treasurer are held every second year, in odd-numbered years.
As one of Ontario’s largest public sector unions, OPSEU takes a leading role in promoting public services and fighting back against efforts to privatize or eliminate those services. It has taken a forceful stand against successive provincial governments in their efforts to impose austerity measures on public sector workers.
The union actively engages in social justice and equity campaigns to advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples, racialized groups, women, LGBTTIQQ2S people, people with disabilities, and others.
The First Strike: 1996
In 1993, Ontario's first NDP government altered the legislation governing Ontario Public Service employees to allow them to strike. In 1996, Ontario Public Service employees struck legally (Correctional Officers struck illegally in 1979) for the first time in their history. The strike was deeply political; OPSEU rallied against the Mike Harris government's proposed job cuts. The tension between the Government and OPSEU culminated on March 18, 1996 in a confrontation between the OPP and OPSEU strikers at Queen's Park in Toronto. Ontario Provincial Police riot control officers were called in to escort members of parliament who were being prevented from entering the legislature. MPPs were pelted with rocks and paper cups when they tried to cross the line. The confrontation escalated when police began to push through the line of protesters and violence erupted. At least half a dozen protesters were injured.
The Second Strike: 2002
The second strike between OPSEU and the provincial government lasted 54 days (March 13 to May 5) in 2002. Again, tensions between managers and the union were strong. Although there was no bloody confrontation between the union and the government during this strike, there was a strong division between union members and management.