OTTAWA — The Ontario government and its public-sector unions could be heading for a major confrontation over wage freezes and cutbacks as the Liberals try to wrestle down a $25-billion deficit.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan told union leaders at a recent meeting that all options, including unpaid vacation, are on the table as the government crafts a budget due in March.
And experts such as Ian Lee, the director of the MBA program at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, say public-sector job losses are inevitable.
But with union leaders vowing to fight any attempt to reduce the deficit “on the backs” of workers, there could be loads of trouble ahead. Last fall, Sid Ryan, former president of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and now head of the Ontario Federation of Labour, warned Dalton McGuinty that the premier would introduce unpaid days off at his peril.
“The last time a ‘Liberal’ introduced ‘Rae Days,’ it cost them the government,” Ryan warned in reference to then-NDP premier Bob Rae’s 1993 “Social Contract” cutback legislation.
“I fully expect that an attack on the public sector and public services in our communities will be met with resistance,” adds Candace Rennick, secretary-treasurer of CUPE’s Ontario wing. “I don’t think the unions will accept something like Rae Days. And I don’t think they will accept a wage freeze. Ordinary citizens didn’t create this problem, so they shouldn’t have to pay for this crisis.”
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You are absolutely right, Sid Ryan – ordinary people did not create the bloated bureaucracies (or employees for life) of government and supersized entitlement programs and wages. It was unscrupulous, self serving union and government negotiators – aided and abetted by vote hungry politicians. Yeah its a civil service alright – everyone else should feel their pain. Cheers.
“Candace Rennick, secretary-treasurer of CUPE’s Ontario wing. “I don’t think the unions will accept something like Rae Days. And I don’t think they will accept a wage freeze. Ordinary citizens didn’t create this problem, so they shouldn’t have to pay for this crisis.”
Candy, then please tell us who will pay for the $25 billion deficit with more projected next year? What kind of an imaginary world do these government unions live in?
We have 10% unemployment and the CFIB.CA (the organization where Danielle Smith worked, now leader of the Wild Rose Party ) says that CUPE is overpaid by 40% compared to real world jobs that support the public sector.
Finally McGuinty is tackling Ontario’s number one problem: public sector union monopolies. Even academics “get it” :
“Public sector expenditures are overwhelmingly composed of wages, and by definition, any assault on the deficit is necessarily an assault on wages,” says Ian Lee of Carlton University.
Cuts will have to come from Health Care which is approaching nearly half the budget of Queens Park and will grow bigger with the bodies of baby boomers falling apart. So expect a decline in Health unless we gear up for more Shouldice Clinic private options. Where do the PCs stand on this issue? Do we need a Trillium Party in Ontario? Where’s our Danielle Smith?
“What are we doing cutting billions of dollars in corporate taxes? We shouldn’t be doing that. We should be investing in (insert here “Government”) jobs,” says Candy Rennick.
That is where this ideological battle is about to be fought: government unions versus the private sector. McGuinty is belated making a number of appropriate moves that he should have done while economic times were better because high corporate taxes kill jobs. The government sector has been a parasite on the backs on Ontario’s private sector workers. This will become very nasty. CUPE will wish Mike Harris was back.
Mcsquinty used the unions to get elected; now they are calling in the debt. What goes around comes around.