Algoma U. professor sees ‘deeply concerning trend’ in Bill 28

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(Premier Ford promised today [Monday] to rescind Bill 28. Points made in this item dealing with apparent abuse of the Notwithstanding Clause remain valid. Editor)

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The Ontario government passed legislation forcing a contract on thousands of education workers across the province and making any kind of job action illegal.Education Minister Stephen Lecce introduced Bill 28, or The Keeping Students in Class Act, on Oct. 31 after contract negotiations with the Canadian Union of Public Employees fell apart and they gave strike notice for Nov. 4.The union represents about 55,000 education support workers across the province, including educational assistants, early childhood educators, secretaries, librarians, and custodians.Bill 28, passed on Nov. 3, imposes a four-year contract on the union members and makes strike action illegal, imposing fines for walking off the job of up to $4,000 per day for individual workers and up to $500,000 per day for the union.To prevent legal challenges to the bill, the Ford government has also invoked the Notwithstanding Clause. This means the bill cannot be challenged for going against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is only the second time the Notwithstanding Clause has been used in Ontario; the first also came from the Ford government in 2021.This is not the first time that a government has introduced back-to-work legislation before a strike starts.Dr. Tom McDowell, an instructor of law and politics at Algoma University, explained the McGuinty government’s Putting Students First Act (Bill 115) in 2012 has acted as a precursor to Ford’s bill.“Bill 115 was an effort to pre-emptively impose a collective agreement, which included a two-year wage freeze, on public sector education workers in the province,” McDowell told Sault This Week.“The bill also restricted education workers from taking strike action. The courts ultimately found that Bill 115 violated public sector employees’ Charter rights, and it is this precedent – that workers have a constitutional right to strike that cannot be pre-emptively legislated away – which has necessitated the use of the Notwithstanding Clause in this instance.”Michele McCleave-Kennedy, president of Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council, said Bill 28 is part of a pattern the Ford government has shown of fighting against workers’ rights.“When Ford first got elected, he went after workers by rolling back the minimum wage increase that was law by the previous government,” McCleave-Kennedy told Sault This Week.(Ontario Liberals in 2018 had proposed for 2019, a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Following the election that year the Progressive Conservatives under Premier Doug Ford reversed that plan. Since then the minimum wage has risen to $15.50, tied to the Consumer Price Index.)“Now he is trying to take away workers’ rights to bargain, right to strike, and their right to challenge the government in court. Workers are coming together to stand up in support of the CUPE workers.”McDowell, however, pointed out that Ford did not start the provincial attack on workers.“This is a deeply concerning trend insofar as it represents an intensification of a multi-decade effort to curtail labour rights by bending the rules of democracy in the province of Ontario,” he said.“The application of the Notwithstanding Clause represents a new chapter in this process, but an important one, since it involves Charter rights and the basic question as to whether the province should hold a whip hand to discipline labour and intervene in bargaining disputes at its discretion.”He added that this legislation could have broad implications for both democratic and labour rights in Ontario.Sault This Week reached out to Sault MPP Ross Romano’s office for comment about how Romano believes the legislation will impact his constituents in the Sault. In response, his office forwarded a standard statement from education minister Stephen Lecce’s office, reiterating the government’s argument that they have “made good faith efforts to reach a fair deal… but CUPE wouldn’t budge.” No effort was made by Romano’s office to answer Sault This Week’s questions about the impact on Sault Ste. Marie students, parents, or workers.Despite the threat of fines, thousands of CUPE workers walked off the job on Nov. 4, supported by thousands of other workers and parents. McCleave-Kennedy said that labour’s support for CUPE will continue.“Unions will stand together with these workers to tell the Ford government to go back to the table to bargain in good faith,” she said.“As a community, we can all email or call Doug Ford and MPP Ross Romano and let them know how we feel. The community is welcome to join us at picket lines across the province, which can be found on cupe.on.ca. Make your voice heard.”