罢工事件——省长与工会主席重新谈判

全省大罢工事件传来好消息。省长和工会主席开始重新谈判，此次罢工事件有可能避免。省长麦坚迪和安省公务员工会（CUPE）主席Sid Ryan表示，他们非常乐观会解决今天午夜将要进行的大罢工威胁。以下是Toronto Star发自加通社的最新报道：

CUPE strike rhetoric cools Union, premier's office want to engage in talks

Feb. 22, 2006. 04:10 PM

KEITH LESLIE
CANADIAN PRESS

Weeks of acrimony seemed to evaporate today after Premier Dalton McGuinty said he was optimistic about reaching an agreement to avoid a threatened strike by Ontario’s largest public-sector union.

As many as 100,000 workers were threatening to walk off the job illegally at midnight in a dispute with the province over pension legislation.

“There’s still a lot of goodwill around, and I’m not giving up on the possibility that we might come to some understanding,” McGuinty said.

“The legislation is still moving ahead, but I fully expect that discussions will continue.”

CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan immediately said he was encouraged by McGuinty’s words and hopeful the walkout could be averted.

“I appreciate the premier’s comments actually in terms of lowering the temperature a little bit,” Ryan said.

“I believe we’re going to find the compromise that gets us out of this where we don’t have to have a strike.”

Ryan insisted the union’s threshold for calling off the walkout was low, saying all he needed was a sign the government was willing to address CUPE’s concerns about the pension bill.

“I’ve been saying since day one that we’re willing to take the strike threat off the table if the premier engages in meaningful discussions,” he said.

“Read between the lines: CUPE and the government are speaking as we speak.”

Ryan had been warning Ontario to brace for a provincewide strike at 12:01 a.m. Thursday by workers who clean schools, staff day-care centres and water-treatment plants, plow roads and pick up trash.

Other CUPE members work in long-term care facilities, libraries and public transit systems.

However, the potential impact of the strike wasn’t clear, since some union locals have said they wouldn’t participate.

Union workers are angry over government legislation that devolves responsibility for the $40-billion Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System to municipalities and the workers.

Ryan says the changes would make it impossible for municipal workers to negotiate better pension benefits.

Final reading on the bill began yesterday.

The bill would also give emergency workers such as police and firefighters the power to negotiate supplemental benefits, which municipalities warn will lead to property tax hikes.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario warned there is no way to keep roads clear in the event of a CUPE strike because many snow plow operators are union members.