300 LAO workers represented by union
All the employees at the Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) Peel York District office have voted to join the Ontario Public Service Employees (OPSEU) union.
“I’m not one bit surprised that it was unanimous,” said Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU president. “Our new members do exactly the same work done by people in the other Legal Aid Offices around the province, so why shouldn’t they get the same pay and benefits?”
The Peel York District legal aid workers are the latest to join OPSEU. Over the past year, workers at the Central District (with offices in Barrie, Peterborough, and Oshawa), the North Toronto District (with four offices in Scarborough), and the Essex-Lambton-Kent District Office (with offices in Sarnia, Windsor, and Chatham) have also joined the 155,000-member union, according to OPSEU.
