Listening to Here and Now on CBC Radio One today and I was pleasantly surprised by the balanced responses offered by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of OPSEU, in response to the budget speech by Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan where it was announced that the government would be freezing public employee wages for the next two years. Rather than being hostile and angry in the interview, Mr. Thomas was calm and said that he was disappointed with the approach the Ontario Liberals have taken while adding that he was not going to get too excited about it yet and admitted he still had to dissect the budget more thoroughly. I felt Mr. Thomas to be a breath of fresh air from some of the heated reactions we can hear from some of the other union leaders.
The entire interview can be found here: http://www.cbc.ca/hereandnowtoronto/episodes/2012/03/27/public-sector-unions-and-ontarios-budget/
My point was made even more today when I turned on CBC this morning to hear the president of the teacher's union ranting about the budget. This may be tainted by the fact that I think the teachers union has won some very generous compensation for their members. Note: I do not have inside knowledge of their collective bargaining agreement and I should probably enlighten myself, but it would he much easier if a teacher in the public system could give me a synopsis.
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