CUPE school workers ‘are not backing down’ as Ford government asks labour board to end strike
CUPE #CUPE
School remains in limbo next week for millions of Ontario students and their parents amid an illegal strike by support staff that also threatens Premier Doug Ford’s shaky electoral coalition with private-sector unions.
As 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees walked off the job Friday — holding protests around the province, including at Queen’s Park — Education Minister Stephen Lecce hauled the union’s leaders to the labour relations board seeking a cease-and-desist order.
“Immediately following proclamation of the Keeping Students in Class Act (Thursday), we filed a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board in response to CUPE’s illegal strike action,” Lecce said.
The began late Friday afternoon and was set to continue into Saturday.
“Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so,” the minister said.
That includes daily fines for workers of up to $4,000 each and $500,000 for the union — a tally that could top $220 million per day.
Lecce’s comments came the day after Ford’s Progressive Conservatives rammed through controversial legislation overriding Charter rights and imposing a four-year contract on school support workers with annual raises of up to 2.5 per cent.
Among those rallying at Queen’s Park in a festive protest were leaders and members of other public- and private-sector unions — just four months after Ford was re-elected with a “Big Blue Collar Machine” push that successfully courted unionized workers.
Lana Payne, president of Unifor and the most powerful private-sector union leader in Canada, said $100,000 was being donated to help CUPE pay its fines.
Payne predicted Ford would regret his “assault on trade union freedoms for all workers” across Canada.
“It’s unprecedented and what’s required is an unprecedented response,” said the Unifor president, who represents more than 310,000 workers, including editorial staff at the Star.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, told the crowd at Queen’s Park that “workers are not backing down. We are done — we are done being treated like this. We’re done with being disrespected. We’re done with being devalued.”
Hundreds of CUPE members gathered outside the constituency office of Education Minister Stephen Lecce after the provincial government enacted a law imposing a contract on 55,000 educations workers and banning them from striking. The protesters accused the government of “ripping away” their rights, calling on it to return to the negotiating table. (NOV. 4 / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Walton said the union wants the government to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a new deal, despite Thursday’s legislation.
She also warned parents to expect the strike to continue.
“What parents need to do right now is be focused on the lowest paid (school employees) that are trying to survive,” she said. “They need to be focusing on the people who just ripped away the rights.”
One of those concerned parents is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Speaking to reporters in Toronto on Friday, Trudeau said he had talked to union leaders and described Ford’s use of the notwithstanding clause as an “attack” on fundamental rights, including the right to collective bargaining.
“I think there are a lot of people, a lot of parents like me who have kids in Ontario schools, that are concerned about the job action and about the strikes,” the prime minister said.
“But I can tell you, parents and all Canadians should be extremely worried about the suspension of our most fundamental rights and freedoms,” he said.
Also concerned are the private-sector unions that helped Ford win a bigger majority.
Most of the eight unions that endorsed the Tories last spring have denounced the premier’s move, including the labourer’s union, LiUNA, which called the legislation “a dangerous precedent that aims to erode respect for collective bargaining rights and unionized labour in Ontario.”
The Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, representing five more unions, also spoke out, saying it is “deeply concerned.”
“Collective bargaining is a fundamental right of working people that has been repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada and is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” the council said in a statement. “The foundation of our safe and respectful workplaces comes from negotiated agreements that provide fair and balanced employment conditions arrived at through collective bargaining.”
The council added it “stands in support of all workers against the potential removal of collective bargaining rights” and encouraged CUPE and the government to pursue negotiations in good faith.
Member unions in the council that endorsed Ford included the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Ontario Pipe Trades Council and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
Compounding the uncertainty for parents is that not all support staff are represented by CUPE, so the strike does not impact every board of education.
Those that is does — including the Toronto public and Catholic boards — have said students are to learn online as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic that closed Ontario classrooms for longer than any other jurisdiction in North America and much of Europe.
Thousands of Ontario education workers hit picket lines across the province honking noisemakers, waving flags and chanting “stand up, fight back,” on the first day of an indefinite walkout that’s shut many schools. The Progressive Conservative government enacted a law imposing a contract on 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and banned them from striking, pre-emptively using the notwithstanding clause to guard against constitutional challenges. (NOV. 4 / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The York Region District School Board took to social media to say all “schools will be closed to students until CUPE members return to work. Students will learn remotely. PARENTS DO NOT send your child to school until further notice.”
Still, Lecce has said he expects teachers to show up for work and for classes to be livestreamed.
His application to the labour board asks that CUPE “cease and desist from calling, authorizing or threatening to call or authorize unlawful strikes” and be ordered to let all members — who include custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants or child and youth workers — know the job action is illegal.
It calls for CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn as well as Walton “and all persons acting in concert therewith, (to) cease and desist from counselling, procuring, supporting, authorizing, threatening, or encouraging unlawful strikes.”
CUPE has promised to cover members’ $4,000 fines if the union is also forced to pay its $500,000 levies.
Last-ditch talks collapsed between the two sides on Thursday, just hours before the legislation passed at Queen’s Park.
Both parties had moved from their original demands on wages, with CUPE slashing its proposal of roughly 11 per cent a year to about six, and the government moving from raises of two per cent to up to 2.5 annually over four years for the lowest-paid union members, and from 1.25 to 1.5 for those earning more than $43,000.
With Files From Jacques Gallant
Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie SHARE:
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