Queen’s Park Bureau
The Ontario government has reached a tentative two-year contract agreement with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
The proposed agreement with the 35,280-member OPSEU includes a wage freeze but other details are being withheld until both sides ratify the deal.
“I want to thank the leadership of OPSEU for spending approximately 700 hours with us at the bargaining table to reach an agreement that will protect public services and jobs. This deal will help us meet our fiscal targets and it shows how everyone has a role to play to help Ontario eliminate the deficit,” Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said in statement released Wednesday.
The previous collective agreement with OPSEU expired on Dec. 31. The tentative deal was reached in the wee hours Wednesday.
OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas told the Star that given the tough economic times “it is a very livable agreement and we will be recommending it to our membership to ratify.”
“The government should be pleased but I don’t know that our members will be happy, but certainly, given the times, they came out pretty good,” he said.