Strikers could be back to work Monday

Ontario public servants could be back to work Monday if they vote to accept the province’s latest contract offer.
About 45,000 members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, including 4,500 in Northwestern Ontario, will be voting on the offer this weekend.
Local OPSEU members will vote tomorrow afternoon at strike headquarters here following an information session on the offer.
Results of the vote will announced by 6 p.m. If the contract is ratified, then union members will be back to work Monday morning.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Bob Dakin, president of Local #711 here, said Friday morning. “It’s not the best [contract] but it is a compromise.”
But even if public service employees are back on the job Monday, that doesn’t mean everything will be back to normal.
A mountain of paperwork on everything from birth and death certificates to health insurance cards and Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) services has been piling up since the strike began March 13.
It will take days—or even weeks—to get caught up.
There also is concern that a flood of people who have been waiting to get their licence renewed or take their driver’s test will come in as soon as the strike is over.
“It’s not going to be hit-the-ground-running,” Dakin warned. “I mean, we will hit the ground and we will be running, but we won’t be back to full speed immediately.”