Liberal excuse for ending collective bargaining in tatters

September was a big month for collective agreement settlements in Ontario and the wage settlements fell, according to the government of Ontario.  Public sector settlements for 36,348 workers saw annual average wage increases of 0.6%.

 This occurred despite higher increases for over 11,000 of these public sector workers:

• Two police settlements covering over 1,000 employees saw 3% annual wage increases, 
• Two other municipal settlements covering almost 1,000 workers got 1.9% increases,
• Agreements covering 4,500 academics at four universities got settlements in the 1.2% to 2.0% range, and 
• Three hospital settlements covering 4,800 workers simply caught up to the CUPE central hospital wage pattern achieved in 2009 (2%).

Most of the other settlements in the broader public sector saw zip over their term.  Despite this, the Liberal party saw fit to call for legislation (The Protecting Public Services Act) at the end of September that would have stopped free collective bargaining in the broader public sector  -- allegedly to achieve a wage freeze.