Ontario Public Service Employees Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**OPSEU**

Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Founded	1911
Members	105,000
Country	Canada
Affiliation	CLC
Key people	Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president
Office location	Toronto, Ontario
Website	www.opseu.org

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is a trade union that represents about 115,000 employees in the broader public service of the Province of Ontario, Canada. Its president (as of 2007) is Warren (Smokey) Thomas.

OPSEU is descended from its predecessor, the Civil Service Association of Ontario. OPSEU is affiliated with the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

OPSEU represents workers in more than 500 bargaining units in the following areas:

Employees of the provincial government
Academic and support staff working for Ontario's Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology
Simcoe County District School Board
Moosonee District Area School Board
Moosonee Roman Catholic Separate School Board
Peel District School Board
Rainbow District School Board
Trent University, Nipissing University, Ryerson University
Ambulance services, community health care, hospital professionals, health care/support and long term care facilities, mental health workers
Canadian Blood Services staff
Developmental services, Children's Aid Societies, child and family services, childcare, community agencies, and child treatment centres workers
Correctional services (provincially-operated jails and prisons)
Legal aid clinics
21 different municipality groups across the province
Casinos and racetracks
Art Gallery of Ontario
Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto Community Housing Corporation
Ontario Dairy Herd Improvement Corporation
Niagara Parks Commission
Teranet
Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario
Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal
Liquor Control Board of Ontario
Ontario College of Art and Design non-faculty staff.

OPSEU has 20 offices in cities across Ontario. Its head office is located in Toronto.

[edit] Carriage rights

Unlike most unions, OPSEU members have personal carriage rights over their grievance(s). In most unions, once a grievance is filed the union takes carriage of the grievance at the corporate level. For OPSEU members, this means that the individual member, or group of members, who filed the grievance(s) have the right to make all decisions with regard to settlement, withdrawal and the decision whether or not to proceed with litigation. This can potentially be costly to the union as the grievor may refuse to settle or withdraw a frivolous or groundless grievance. However, mediated arbitration is often used as a cost effective method for determining a grievance's potential before a settlement board if the grievor chooses not to settle at that stage. The grievor's union representative will then counsel the grievor on the best course of action. Often if it appears that a grievance could be lost with prejudice (i.e., the settlement could negatively impact future, similar grievances by setting precedent) then the representative may recommend that the grievor tactically withdraw it at that stage.