April 11, 2024 | Barry Weisleder
Socialist Action members joined picketing workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on April 9, 2024. They recently went on strike to win higher wages in one of Canada’s most expensive cities.
OPSEU posted the following statement on its web site:
“After ten months of bargaining, over 400 members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union(OPSEU/SEFPO) Local 535 officially went on strike on March 26 after rejecting the museum’s latest offer.
The union said AGO’s “last” offer failed to provide a livable wage and include protections against contracting out for part-time workers, which make up 60 percent of the museum’s staff.
Event setup coordinator Mark Thornberry has worked at the museum for 15 years, but said wages at the museum are not keeping up with rapid increases in the cost of living in Toronto. “It’s terrible at the moment. It’s rock bottom, and hat’s tough because people love working at the Art Gallery of Ontario,” Thornberry told CBC News. “It seems more and more that the employer doesn’t care about them.”
OPSEU local president Paul Ayers says public service employees struggled through the Covid-19 pandemic and three years of wage freezes, and cannot afford to keep up with inflation.“The AGO Foundation paid out its CEO, Stephan Jost, over $390,000 in ‘consulting’ fees between 2020 and 2021 alone – on top of his $406,000 salary,” Ayers said in a press statement. “Yet there’s no money for wages? The gallery can absolutely afford to bring forward a better offer.”
