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AAT IEE RN SEE TERRE WE SSE EVENS Sa LEA J edd LARA Ph PORT PERRY STAR -- Monday, Dec. 23, 1974 -- 19 Your government's position on negotiations with the Civil Service Association of Ontario. The Govemment of Ontario has offered the CSAO an average 20% pay increase over one year and is prepared to go to arbitration. CSAO leadership has refused this offer and also refuses to go to arbitration. We believe, as your government, we have offered a fair and reasonable contract. For almost three months now the Government of Ontario has been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement with the Civil Service Association of Ontario covering some 19,000 civil servants in the Operational Services Category. With less than two weeks' negotiating time left before the current contract expires and the CSAO threatening an illegal strike on January Ist if it doesn't have a new agree- ment by then, we thought it was time to let you, the tax- payers of Ontario, know directly how and where things stand. . : After all, it is your tax dollars that will be used to pay for any wage settlement we make with these employees. And it is your services that will be threatened with disruption if the CSAO carries out its threat of an illegal walkout. The government has tried to negotiate in good faith. Government and CSAO negotiators have had a number of meetings since September. At them our representatives have consistently tried to bargain seriously and in good faith. We have shown reasonable flexibility in our position. When that approach failed to draw a response from the other side, government negotiators on December 3rd put their full mandate on the bargaining table. By contrast, CSAO negotiators in September demanded a 61% per cent increase in a one-year contract for 1975 --an increase that would cost you, the taxpayers of Ontario, almost $100 million in additional wage bills next year. The CSAO refused to move from that position until December 13th when it put forth an equally unrealistic and unreason- able demand for a 41 per cent increase in one year. The government has made a fair and reasonable wage offer. The government's current offer was made in a sincere attempt to be fair and reasonable with our employees, while, at the same time, recognizing our wider responsi- bilities to the taxpayers and economy of our province. In recognition of the current inflationary climate in Canada, we proposed a one-year contract so that both sides could return to the bargaining table within 12 months and review the situation in the light of economic circumstances at that time. For 1975 we offered wage increases averaging 20 per cent for the 19,000 employees involved. These in- creases would cost an additional $32.7 million next year. The government wants a settlement -- but it must be prepared for an illegal strike. The government remains ready to negotiate seriously and in good faith within the framework of its current proposal. We have already offered to submit the matter to an arbitra- tion board. And an arbitration board, we might add, which "would be constituted in a way which would meet the CSAO's own demand for equal representation on such boards. In the meantime, since January Ist isn't far away, the gov- ernment has had to formulate contingency plans in the event the CSAO leadership persists in calling an illegal strike. We hope that doesn't happen. But if it does, we are determined to meet our responsibility to maintain those services you rightfully expect to receive from your government. We believe we have been fair and reasonable with our employees and responsible to you as taxpayers and to the economy of our province. ® Ontario Government of Ontario Management Board This statement represents the status of negotiations as of publication deadline.