(Toronto) Ontario has passed legislation outlawing the right to strike and imposing a contract on 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Posted at 6:29 pm
However, the union has announced that it will participate in an indefinite strike from Friday.
Many school boards said schools could not operate safely without CUPE members, such as early childhood teachers, custodians and administrative staff, and the union warned parents that they would remain closed next week.
The new law would impose a contract on education workers and prohibit them from striking, including a clause protecting against constitutional challenges, after mediation between the Ontario government and CUPE ended without an agreement Thursday.
Education Minister Stephen Lexie said new legislation was needed to keep children in class.
The law provides fines for violations of the ban on strikes during the term of the contract, up to $4,000 per day per employee, and up to $500,000 per union.
CUPE previously indicated it would continue to call for a Friday walkout “until further notice” for the 55,000 members of the education sector — teaching assistants, janitors, librarians, daycare teachers — even if special legislation is passed, outlawing the strike. or administrative staff.
The Ministry of Education is asking school boards to do “everything possible” to keep schools open or switch to remote learning.
Several school boards in the province, including Toronto, have said schools will be closed if a strike occurs, while others plan to move to online learning.
The Department of Education said in a memo obtained by The Canadian Press that school boards should “implement contingency plans that make every effort to keep schools open to as many children as possible.”
If school boards determine they cannot safely open schools without CUPE members, the ministry says, “school boards must help students transition quickly to remote learning.”
Because the right to strike is protected by the Charter, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides for special legislation for any “preventive remedy”.
Premier Doug Ford says education workers have “nothing” for him but to pass legislation to prevent a strike. Mr Ford said his government would use all the tools at its disposal to keep children in class full-time, with students already disrupted for two years due to the pandemic.
Support from another union
Another labor organization, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), on Thursday asked its 8,000 members in the education sector to take a day off on Friday to show their solidarity with CUPE union members and to denounce the use of special legislation.
A number of school boards with unionized OPSEU employees have already announced they will be forced to close their schools due to a strike by CUPE union members, including Peel and York school boards, which represent the largest group of OPSEU members.
Two other school boards in Sudbury and Simcoe County announced Thursday they are closing schools following OPSEU’s planned walkout on Friday.
The Ford government’s “unconstitutional and undemocratic” legislation “is not only an attack on the right of education workers to bargain collectively, it is an attack on the rights of all workers,” OPSEU President JP Hornick said in a statement Thursday morning.
The two main unions representing primary and secondary school teachers and other education workers said on Thursday they had no plans to stage solidarity walkouts, but they encouraged their members to support CUPE outside working hours.
Both the Secondary Teachers’ Federation and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation are in the middle of talks with the Ford government to renew collective agreements.
Bullying is no negotiation
CUPE said on Wednesday that its members plan to continue the strike after Friday if no deal is reached with the government. Day camps have sprung up across Ontario ahead of Friday’s strike.
CUPE made a counter-offer on Tuesday evening, but Minister Lexey said on Wednesday he would not renegotiate until the union withdrew its strike call on Friday.
The government initially proposed a 2% annual increase for workers earning less than $40,000 and 1.25% for everyone else. The new four-year contract, decreed by special legislation, grants a 2.5% annual increase to workers earning less than $43,000 and 1.5% to all others.
CUPE argued that the proposal was actually based on hourly wages and salary standards, so most workers earning less than $43,000 a year would not receive this 2.5% increase.
The union originally sought an 11.7% annual raise, arguing that these workers, who earn an average of $39,000 a year, are typically the lowest paid in the entire school system.
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