Striking inspectors and safety advocates held a midday rally outside the office of Sault Parliamentarian Ross Romano Wednesday in their quest for better wages, benefits, staffing and more accountability for public safety rules and practices.
Inspectors represented by OPSEU are employed by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), which is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Technical Standards and Safety Act and its regulations on behalf of the Government of Ontario.
170 inspectors, represented by Toronto OPSEU Local 546 for more than a year and seeking their first contract, have been on strike across Ontario since July 21.
There are 12 safety inspectors represented by OPSEU in Northern Ontario, two in Sault Ste. Mary
The two Sault inspectors joined local and regional OPSEU officials at Wednesday’s rally.
Inspectors working for TSSA are responsible for inspecting lifts, amusement park machinery, ski lifts, boilers, pressure vessels, nuclear power plants and pipelines.
“Our employer, the TSSA, walked away from the bargaining table and refuses to return to the bargaining table. We are concerned that our wages and benefits will be maintained. We have suffered cuts in all of our services and benefits and the “top management gets raises and bonuses every year, and meanwhile we’ve gotten 0.9 percent over three years,” said Adam Wells, TSSA field safety inspector based in Sturgeon Falls. and member of OPSEU Local 546, speaking with SooToday.
“This employer has become very resistant and anti-union and uses a lot of union busting techniques when these people just want to get back to work and protect the public. We are calling for more inspectors and regularly scheduled inspections and I think everyone in Ontario would like that passi,” said Tara Maszczakiewicz, Regional Vice President of OPSEU Region 6.
Wednesday’s rally followed a weekend propane tank fire in the Sault, as previously reported.
“We would verify that any equipment is still safe to operate and we can’t verify whether that has been done or not. That large storage tank that is there may not be safe to operate,” said local inspector Mark Bernard , referring to the weekend propane tank incident.
There have been other incidents at Canada’s Wonderland and Upper Canada Village while inspectors have been on strike, Wells said, inspectors concerned about safety at Toronto’s upcoming CNE celebrations.
Local inspectors work at Algoma Steel, as well as Searchmont, gas stations and gas stations, and other locations.
“Anyone who goes to a business to do TSSA inspection work is a scumbag and we don’t know what their qualifications are and probably neither does the public … we can’t do our job without an agreement,” he said. say Maszczakiewicz, although the workers declared that they are not aware of such inspections.
The TSSA, on its website, has said it has offered inspectors “excellent health, dental and pension benefits and salary increases for a multi-year agreement”.
However, Wells said “what TSSA has proposed to us is a 14-year step-up salary increase plan that is based on performance … but if your supervisor doesn’t like you, you don’t get a raise or they want you demote again. to the previous pay band. If they do it twice, they’ve put in writing that they want to be able to fire this inspector without any repercussions. It’s ridiculous.”
Wells said inspectors have seen their benefits decrease and benefit providers change since the TSSA was established under the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris in the 1990s.
Wells added that female inspectors are underpaid compared to their male counterparts.
Local inspectors Mark Bernard and Alan Pawelek said respect for the inspectors is deserved because they worked as essential service workers during COVID.
“They needed us as an essential service during the COVID, but now we are just pawns, we are nothing to them. On March 1, the mandates ended and now we, as inspectors, are forced to strike,” said Bernard.