TorontoThose Ontario MPPs who support increasing their salaries by more than 30 per cent are nothing more than hogs lapping it up at the public trough. A pay hike amounting to nearly $30,000 is unconscionable and disgusting when hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are being told there will be no meaningful wage increases at that bargaining table, says Sid Ryan the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
CUPE represents 180,000 members, employed in the broader public sector, who have consistently been threatened by the Ontario Tory government with wage freezes and told to keep wage demands to less than 2 per cent.
Its galling that this government preaches wage restraints for hundreds of thousands of workers but thinks it just fine that they get a 30 per cent wage increase. This sends a clear message to other workers that they too should be making hefty wage demands, says Ryan, who added that the Liberals are not different than the Tories.
Despite Liberal leader Dalton McGuintys public pronouncements of empathy with average Ontarians its obvious, says Ryan that the Liberals cant wait to stick their snouts in the trough.
Ryan believes all workers, including MPPs, deserve a fair pay increase.
There are 40,000 CUPE members in the health care sector now at the bargaining table. Whether this government wants to acknowledge it or not, by accepting the hefty wage increase they are setting a standard for other public sector workers, says Ryan.
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For more information please contact:
Sid Ryan, President CUPE Ontario
(416) 209-0066
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications
(416) 578-8774