Doug Ford pits his callousness against CUPE’s recklessness
CUPE #CUPE
This is not the first time a government has banned a strike by unionized workers.
Nor is it the first time an education union has tried to shut down schools at the expense of students and parents.
But Doug Ford is doing it differently this time, unlike anyone before him. Thanks to a bizarrely provocative union strategy, CUPE gave Ontario’s populist premier the excuse he was looking for to come down hard — and likely emerge more popular.
Many politicians have tried to rewrite the rules, only to be overruled by judges. Now, Ford is overriding basic Charter rights in a way never before attempted.
By dictating a final contract, Ontario’s premier is blocking CUPE’s unionized workers from the right to fair-minded and independent arbitration that other essential workers are granted when deprived of the democratic right to strike. By invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he is depriving workers of their right of appeal in court — lest they win on the law.
While deploying the constitution’s so-called nuclear option, Ford is also brandishing a financial sledgehammer to cudgel any who dare to defy him. Wayward workers — low-wage custodians, educational assistants and clerical staff — face a disproportionate fine of $4,000 and CUPE must pay $500,000 for every day they disobey, starting Friday.
By rewriting the rules and overriding the courts, the premier is acting as judge, jury and executioner while serving as chief executive and bad-faith bargainer. His government’s unprecedented move is creating a new legal precedent that upsets the delicate balance in labour relations law.
But there is more to this mess than Ford’s callousness. CUPE’s recklessness got us where we are today.
One day after Ford’s re-election, the Canadian Union of Public Employees kicked off a provocative bargaining strategy that was never going to end well. It demanded 11 per cent in annual wage increases that were a non-starter from the first.
The union did so knowing full well that Ford’s Tories — and, candidly, the voters who re-elected him — have no appetite for more labour disruptions in a school system still recovering cancelled classes after nearly three years of COVID-19. Mythology aside, union-management disputes are not about fairness — they are essentially naked power struggles to see which side has the greater leverage to hurt the other more before someone cries uncle (or aunt).
Perennial struggles between public-sector unions and elected governments are that much more unfair, especially in the school system. Strikes are not merely battles pitting an education union against an education minister to see who will bleed and concede more; both antagonists are fighting to the last student.
CUPE’s caretakers, clerks and early education workers lack the leverage (and strike funds) of the bigger, richer teachers’ unions; staying out on the picket line would drain their personal pocketbooks, which is why the union never seemed serious about reaching a settlement.
In this phoney war, CUPE kept baiting the government, knowing that Ford would one day call its bluff and ban a strike — saving the union from itself. Its leaders kept playing the sympathy card, insisting its poorest members line up at food banks because their average salary is $39,000 a year.
But that average includes part-time workers, many of whom get nine weeks off a year when schools are closed, plus indexed pensions — not exactly average. According to CUPE, average wages at the low end are about $25 an hour, while maintenance workers in Hamilton earn $27.18 hourly with an annual income of $56,534.
The government says the average CUPE wage is $26.69 an hour. By way of comparison, the Ontario Living Wage Network recommended an hourly rate of $22.08 in Toronto and $17.20 in Hamilton one year ago; the average industrial wage in Canada is $26.81 an hour. The current minimum wage (which would have been higher had Ontarians not elected Ford twice) is $15.50 an hour.
Bear in mind that CUPE negotiated a contract for Guelph public servants in July with increases of 1.8 per cent, 1.95 and two per cent over three years (you can look it up). This while demanding 11 per cent for education workers, culminating in Friday’s strike plan.
CUPE members certainly deserve more — everyone does — but sticking to 11 per cent won’t get you far in bargaining. The government countered with two per cent, raising it to 2.5 per cent in its final offer presented Sunday.
Both sides continue to cry poor — CUPE describes its members as working poor, while the government claims the cupboard is bare. In fact, Ford’s Tories are benefiting from windfall revenues this year (and may well in future), but governments are not elected to wave a magic wage wand that lifts all salaries, tempting as that seems.
The bigger, more powerful education unions have been watching quietly from the sidelines, hoping CUPE might win a handsome settlement that the province’s teachers could automatically replicate in bargaining — which would add up to billions more to the treasury’s bottom line.
Those are the economics. The politics of this ill-fated confrontation will only weaken our constitution and erode democratic norms.
This was a counterproductive power play by both sides. Now the premier is guilty of an overreach within an overreaction wrapped in an override.
That will be his legacy, and the lasting damage, long after this dispute is forgotten. As generations of Ontario students can attest, history keeps repeating itself in an education sector where lessons are never learned.
Martin Regg Cohn is a Toronto-based columnist focusing on Ontario politics and international affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reggcohn SHARE:
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