Ontario's public-sector unions are warning the province to not balance the books on their backs.

"In this province, we're not going to be advocating that workers somehow start taking concessions at the table to handle the mismanagement of our finances by Bay Street or Wall Street," CUPE Ontario's Sid Ryan told CTV Toronto on Friday.

"If the Liberals don't handle it well, they can have one hell of a bubbly winter, you know what I mean?" said Warren "Smokey" Thomas, OPSEU's president. "They need to think about what they are doing."

Collective bargaining agreements covering more than 200,000 provincial employees will expire over the next 18 months:

  • 73,000 elementary teachers
  • 50,000 high school teachers and support staff
  • 90,000 OPSEU members, including health, LCBO and college support staff

The elementary teachers have already rejected an offer of 12 per cent over four years.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said the offer was a good deal.

"I hope that they are seeing the economic challenges that we are facing and they recognize that the provisions that are on the table are very, very fair," she said.

The province released an economic update on Wednesday and predicted a $500-million deficit this fiscal year.

"They always say the cupboard is bare, right?" said Thomas.

In its documentation, the government wrote: "Compensation costs and wage settlements are key cost elements that can have a substantial impact on the finances of both BPS partners and the province.

"With major contracts covering 50 per cent of BPS unionized workers and approximately 85 per cent of Ontario Public Service employees up for negotiation in 2008-09, the government expects its bargaining agent partners to achieve affordable collective agreements in this new fiscal environment. "

The government hasn't said it will be cutting employees, but it is delaying some hiring.

The government also noted that 80 per cent of its total spending, or $76.6 billion, goes to transfer payment recipients. Such funding will not be increasing in the 2009-10 budget year, it said.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss