Thursday, January 07, 2016
OPSEU has asked for and received a No Board report from the Ministry of Labour, triggering a timeline to a possible strike in the Correctional Bargaining Unit. Although AMAPCEO no longer represents members in correctional institutions, there are potential impacts for our members in the rest of the OPS, particularly with regard to doing struck work, i.e., work that is ordinarily done by unionized workers who are on strike or locked-out.
In an exchange of correspondence last February, President Dave Bulmer sought and received confirmation from David Logan, then-ADM for Employee Relations, that in the event of an OPSEU strike, AMAPCEO-represented employees:
- will not be asked to perform struck work of OPSEU bargaining unit members;
- will not be asked to perform the work of a manager to enable that manager to perform struck work; and
- will not be included in any request for volunteers (e.g., to work in correctional institutions) for the duration of a labour disruption.
The OPS employer has already started to assign non-Corrections Ministry managers to correctional facilities in anticipation of a strike and so we urge AMAPCEO members to let us know if you are asked to backfill for a manager who has been assigned to do struck work. You are not required to do managerial work and, as such, we strongly discourage you from doing so. In addition, please let us know if you are asked to perform or to volunteer to do the work of a striking OPSEU worker.
Our OPSEU colleagues have a legal right to strike and we ask all AMAPCEO members to respect that right and not to engage in actions that are, or that could be legitimately viewed as, strike-breaking.
At this time, potential picket locations are unknown to AMAPCEO. We would remind our members that, while you do have an obligation to your Employer to report to work during such a labour disruption, you are not precluded from showing your solidarity by observing reasonable delays imposed by picketers.