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The head of Canada’s largest private-sector union accused the boss of Ontario’s Public Service Employees Union of insulting “working-class people” on Friday — intensifying a post-election feud in the province’s labour movement.

“He’s got a lot of nerve,” said Unifor president Jerry Dias, responding to OPSEU leader Warren “Smokey” Thomas’s claims that the labour movement “sold their souls to the Liberals” out of fear of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives.

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Instead, Mr. Dias said OPSEU owes his and other unions a debt of gratitude for bringing about “the demise of [PC leader] Tim Hudak” and his plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs.

“Frankly, it is because of Unifor and other labour organizations that thousands of OPSEU members still have jobs,” Mr. Dias said in Friday statement — which came on the heels of a news conference from OPSEU leader Warren “Smokey” Thomas.

At his Thursday news conference, Mr. Thomas took aim at Unifor’s election campaigning, claiming “We’re going to really live to regret that [the Liberals] got a majority government.”