Jim Tait in memoriam:
Honouring an OPSEU pioneer
I had the honour and the privilege of serving with Jim Tait,
a founding member and driving force in the creation of this union, for
several decades.
In Jim's 34 years of dedication to OPSEU, he made an effort
to get to know almost every member of the staff, and touched the lives of
thousands of members across Ontario.
Jim was a union activist from the age of 13, as a deckhand
on a trawler. He stayed true all his life to his working-class roots and
values.
As an immigrant to Canada, Jim soon began working for the
Ontario government as a Clerk at the OHIP office and soon became active in
the Civil Service Association of Ontario (CSAO)
It was the start of a relationship that lasted until Jim's
last days. Jim and the Four Horsemen created OPSEU from the CSAO because
they had a vision of a member-driven union.
This vision has positively affected the lives of millions of
Ontarians since 1975. It’s raised their standard of living, improved
pensions and brought better benefits.
Jim's proudest moment came in the 1990s, when OPSEU was in
the forefront of those standing up the Harris agenda. During the 1996
Ontario Public Service strike, Jim traveled the province to bring OPSEU's
strike bulletins to hundreds of picket lines.
Jim Tait passed away in May 2008. He was a pioneer, who
helped create a movement that gives working people and their families a
better share of the wealth of this province, and more control over their
future.
It's a tribute to Jim and others like him, people with a
vision, that the movement they built in the 1970s is today one of Ontario's
most powerful and effective unions.
In solidarity,
Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President
