OPSEU frets over Ontario's pursuit of contract concessions

Morning North6:57Premier Wynne looks ahead to 2015

Some of the things coming for Premier Wynne in 2015... a by-election in Sudbury, negotiations with Ontario's teachers and public servants, as well as pressure to slay the deficit. Premier Wynne joined us to talk about all this and more.The union that represents Ontario Public Service workers says it's concerned the Liberals are reviewing programs with an eye to privatizing some services.

The Wynne government has promised to eliminate the deficit by 2017-2018, but it also has to agree on a new contract with its public service workers in the new year.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said her position on bargaining is clear.

“There's no new money for salaries and benefits as we go into negotiations with public sector workers.”

However the union that represents public sector workers has a message of its own for the premier.

“The concessions that they are after in this particular round of bargaining would make it easier for the government to privatize the services,” said OPSEU president Smokey Thomas.

OPSEU represents 35,000 workers in the Ontario Public Service.

The union has been running an ad campaign in recent weeks against the Wynne government, saying the Liberals have wasted billions of dollars on flawed partnerships with the private sector.

The OPSEU ads call on Wynne to invest in public sector workers instead.

But Wynne said reining in costs is part of the plan to chip away at the provincial deficit — and that includes a review of government departments.

“We are constraining costs,” she said.

“We are doing a program review across government to look at where we can continue to make decisions to look at where we can continue to make decisions that will allow services to be delivered in the way people need them."