This leaflet was handed out to OPSEU/SEFPO members during Convention 2024.
Staff up, power up
100% more members, 24% more staff
Since 2006, OPSEU/SEFPO membership has grown from 115,000 to 231,000 – a 100% increase. Over the same period, SSU positions have only grown from 260 to 320 – a 24% increase.
Invest in proper staffing and you’re investing in a more powerful OPSEU/SEFPO:
- More powerful member engagement
- More powerful support
- More powerful bargaining
- More powerful campaigns
- More powerful educationals
- More powerful websites and social media
OPSEU/SEFPO members deserve more. Much more.
The 300+ workers in SSU see OPSEU/SEFPO members for who you are: committed and passionate workers and activists, out there everyday on the front-lines, helping people live safer, healthier, and more dignified lives.
We also see you suffering. We see you being told to do more with less, and we see you hurting as you continue to fall farther and farther behind.
We are heartbroken that we can’t support you better. But we’re caught in a long and brutal stretch of understaffing and overwork.
Decades of executive boards have only added positions at a snail’s pace, and only by a fraction of what’s needed.
It does not have to be this way. We can provide more of the support we know you need.
OPSSU members are capable of so much more
Here’s how you can help us unlock our potential to support you better:
- Talk to your Local leaders, EBMs, Equity Committee members, and Sector leaders — ask about OPSEU/SEFPO’s staffing levels
- Wear a Let’s Talk Workload lanyard
Chronic understaffing leaves SSU stressed, sick, and unproductive
Many OPSEU/SEFPO members know the sickening, sinking feeling: too much work and too few workers. It’s a demoralizing situation that breeds toxicity and racism and workers working far below their ambitions and potential.
That’s how it feels working at OPSEU/SEFPO, and it’s felt this way for a long time.
We are asked to serve more members with less resources – it means less time for your locals.
There has been a lot of turnover in my department. It creates a stressful situation where workload is unpredictable and hard to manage.
I often have to work during evenings and weekends, to keep up with the increasing demands. Managers discourage staff from asking for overtime, hiding the extent of the problem.
One person going on leave, often means no timely replacement. The same work is divided amongst less people, limiting the resources that can be allocated to the needs of each Local.
I often have to work during evenings and weekends, to keep up with the increasing demands. Managers discourage staff from asking for overtime, hiding the extent of the problem.
Doctor says: job stress hurts workers and worker productivity
Is Work Killing You? by Dr David Posen
Over the winter, OPSEU/SEFPO and OPSSU co-hosted paid-time sessions with a doctor who is an expert on workplace stress. Dr. David Posen says chronic workplace stress has two main consequences:
- It hurts workers
- It makes workers much less productive.
External review flags chronic workload crisis at OPSEU/SEFPO
An independent organization called Evenings and Weekends spent more than a year reviewing our workplace. Its top finding: OPSEU/ SEFPO has far too few workers to do their work well.