CUPE gives 5 days notice: Ontario repeals Bill 28, but labor issues aren’t over yet
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With CUPE giving five days’ notice of a “potential” educator strike, the state is gearing up for more upheaval.
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“This is not the place we wanted,” Laura Walton, an educational assistant and president of CUPE’s union council for the Ontario Board of Education, said in a statement Wednesday morning.
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But CUPE had no choice, Walton said.
“We hoped that the historic strike vote would see workers acknowledge the urgency to seek resources. Yet they came back without paying the student a dime.”
The question is whether the more than 55,000 educational assistants, early childhood educators, school administrators and parents will picket. Walton represented teachers, nurses, steel workers, construction workers, transportation workers and public sector workers when he declared CUPE victory over controversial Bill 28 on November 7. lined up on the podium by the leaders of the trade unions.
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On Monday, the Ontario Legislature repealed Bill 28. It imposed contracts on workers and prohibited workers from leaving their jobs, but used the charter’s “nevertheless” clause to protect the law from legal challenge. .
The battle is not over yet.
Michael Minzuk, an education market researcher at Brock University, noted a two-week strike in 1997 statewide over plans to overhaul the education system: “There was support throughout the labor movement, but We haven’t seen this since the days of Mike Harris.” .
That sort of thing could happen again, Midzak said. “Overall, everyone is upset about the last three or four years.”
Before Ford pledged to repeal Bill 28, rumors swirled that unions in both the private and public sectors were considering a general strike, seeing the law as an attack on all unions. Although this is uncommon in Canada, so were the terms of Bill 28.
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It was Bill 28’s heavy-handed approach that really ignited the fire, said Stephanie Ross, director of McMaster University’s School of Labor. With Bill 28 repealed, a general strike is unlikely in the short and medium term as long as states keep their promises, she said.
“The terms have changed. We are returning to a more traditional set of negotiations,” said David Camfield, who teaches Teaches Labor Studies and Sociology at the University of Manitoba.
“We have cut prices significantly.
A series of events must occur for a strike to be legal, and stars rarely coincide with more than one union on the same footing. All expired on August 31st. Even though they negotiate separately, they all have “me too” clauses that stipulate they get just like any other union, Minzac said.
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The contracts of educational assistants, guardians and other educational workers represented by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation also ended on August 31st. About 4,780 workers in Ottawa are members of the union.
“Everyone at the negotiating table will want something like 5% to 6% to match inflation,” Mr. Minzac said. “They won’t back down from it.”
For all the gossip about the general strike, some say it’s unlikely. In Canada, the industrial relations system is fragmented. Since there may be multiple unions in one workplace and the bargaining process seldom occurs at the same time, it is not legal to strike at the same time.
In 1976, there was a general strike over a federal bill to limit wage increases introduced by the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau. According to Judy Fudge, who studies labor law and global labor issues at McMaster University, general strikes are more common in continental Europe and are among the political protests protected by the constitutions of many countries. regarded as a form.
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For example, last week in Belgium there was a general strike led by major unions over inflation and declining purchasing power. The strike affected airports, rail travel, schools and supermarkets.
Canada has an entirely different system, with only federal and provincial labor laws providing protection from employer reprimand for strike-related activities, Mr Fudge said.
Members of other unions picketed alongside CUPE workers, and supporters of other unions held rallies in support of CUPE over the weekend. But they were doing it on their own time. A sympathy strike in which workers withdraw their labor is illegal — unless the other union involved is in a legal strike position, Camfield said.
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However, some illegal strikes have been very effective for the labor movement. One example occurred in her state, BC, which has a state government. imposed a three-year collective bargaining agreement. 38,000 members British Columbia Teachers Federation in 2002.
In September 2005, teachers voted Overwhelming strike action. T.The BC government introduced legislation to extend contracts to the end June 2006. teachers I retired on October 7, 2005.
B.C. Supreme Court downplayed unions and later ruled that union It could not issue strike rewards or use its resources to support illegal strikes. But the strike bolstered teachers’ morale and pushed them forward BC government enters negotiationsStaying with the union despite illegal strikes. Teachers gave him a one-time contract bonus of $4,000 and over five years he got a 16% raise.
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“It shows that it is possible to act outside the law and that it is not the end of the world,” Camfield said.
Ross believes there will be a “compassion act” if talks between the state and CUPE break down.
“You’ll see a lot of people picketing from other unions and parent groups,” she said. “I’m not sure we’ll see a sympathy strike.”
Meanwhile, workers’ pervasive frustrations play into the scenario.
People thought the pandemic was over, but it’s not, said Linda Duxbury, who studies work-life balance and employee well-being at Carleton University.
Data from a survey of 36,000 Canadians collected in 2021-2022, Duxbury said, has not yet been made public, but workers said they felt angry, frustrated, tired and worried. I found that I was doing
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“Right now, two-thirds of our employees are frustrated. That’s great. I’ve never seen that,” she said.
The floor on wage levels was temporary and the government looked like a bully, she said.
“People don’t want to work incredible hours at really hard work and be told that what they do is important. I don’t,” said Duxbury.
“I don’t think the danger will go away. People will quit their jobs,” she said. “The whole labor market situation is very volatile. If people don’t get what they want, they will quit.”
Ford clearly knows that the threat of a strike, along with the domino effect of rising wages, is dangerous to the state’s economy.
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“The Ford government does not want popular worker groups to go on strike against them. said Camfield.
“So many people are seeing their wages go down due to inflation. At this point, it’s a shared experience. Many will see the need to strike.”
In the event of an illegal strike, employers can target union strike funds and other assets. Fudge said it is likely that we will see “national protests” or “days of action.”
People can clean the air through pickets and demonstrations, she said.
“People get over the strike. But if you are not allowed to attack, you feel very bitter. ‘ said Fudge.
“If I don’t feel like I’m being heard, I’ll find a way to express myself. I’d rather have an orderly protest than protest to a supervisor or a client.”
CUPE gives 5 days notice: Ontario repeals Bill 28, but labor issues aren’t over yet
Source link CUPE gives 5 days notice: Ontario repeals Bill 28, but labor issues aren’t over yet
