[Ford’s stunning reversal wipes out his government’s ambitions
to legislate away workers’ rights in the province. This could mark
the beginning of a rank-and-file driven renewal of Ontario’s labor
movement.]
[[link removed]]

GENERAL STRIKE THREAT BEATS ONTARIO’S ANTI-WORKER LAW  
[[link removed]]


 

Peter Hoges
November 10, 2022
Labor Notes
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Ford’s stunning reversal wipes out his government’s ambitions
to legislate away workers’ rights in the province. This could mark
the beginning of a rank-and-file driven renewal of Ontario’s labor
movement. _

A new law was supposed to stop 55,000 Ontario school employees from
striking. Instead they struck illegally last Friday, and other unions
laid plans to join them in a province-wide general strike. By Monday
the government hastily reversed the law., OSBCU

 

Ontario workers delivered a spectacular blow to Premier Doug Ford’s
government this week. Just four days after ramming through
unprecedented anti-worker legislation, Bill 28, Ford appeared in a
hastily called press conference on Monday morning to announce its full
repeal.

Ford claimed this was a good-faith gesture to kickstart negotiations
with Ontario’s 55,000 education workers, who had entered their
second day of an “illegal” strike.

But his actions the previous week had painted a very different
picture: of a government hell-bent on stripping workers of their
rights to strike and bargain.

The reality is that Ford and his government were spooked by the rapid
(and unexpected) escalation of Ontario’s unions, including a plan to
launch an indefinite general strike on November 14.

Ford’s stunning reversal wipes out his government’s ambitions to
legislate away workers’ rights in the province. This could mark the
beginning of a rank-and-file driven renewal of Ontario’s labor
movement.

EDUCATION WORKERS

The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), part of the
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), set the stage for this
confrontation months ago.

OSBCU represents not the teachers, but a wide range of other school
employees—such as education assistants, library workers,
administrative assistants, custodians, early childhood educators,
cafeteria workers, safety monitors, and social workers.

The union’s systematic approach to engaging, organizing, and
mobilizing produced a record-breaking strike mandate vote in early
October: 96.5 percent in favor, with an 83 percent turnout.

Outside the union, Justice for Workers organized an impressive
solidarity campaign, including calls for supporters to “paint the
province purple” by putting up posters and purple ribbons all over.

In the same spirit, the Ontario Parent Action Network began to
organize supportive parents and resist Education Minister Stephen
Lecce’s attempts to pit students and their families against
education workers.

These initiatives, coupled with the union’s success in bargaining
for the public good, produced a wave of support that swept the
province. By the time education workers went on strike November 4, the
public was firmly in their corner.

BILL 28

But the fuse that lit the tinderbox of Ontario’s labor movement was
Bill 28, the so-called Keeping Students in Class Act.

Besides imposing a concessionary contract on the lowest-paid workers
in the education system, it invoked the “notwithstanding clause”
of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent any
challenge to the bill, criminalize all strike activity, and override
rights protected in Ontario’s Labour Relations Act and Human Rights
Code.

Special 5 a.m. sessions were scheduled to force the bill through in
record time. Tory (Conservative) legislators laughed, backslapped each
other, and mocked the opposition throughout the proceedings. Their
mouthpieces in the media predicted that parents would reward them for
being so decisive.

Without a doubt, they thought they would face no opposition from
labor. After all, the pundits said, Ford had managed to secure the
backing of several unions during the June 2 election.

But they were dead wrong. The backlash was immediate.

FROM BACKLASH TO ESCALATION

Within hours of Bill 28’s introduction on October 31, the Ontario
Federation of Labour (OFL) launched its “Hands Off Workers’
Rights” campaign and called an emergency rally for the next day at
the Ministry of Labour in downtown Toronto.

Almost 4,000 people turned up, giving confidence to labor’s most
progressive leaders to push for an escalation. The rally marched to
Queen’s Park, the site of the provincial legislative building, where
thousands chanted for Ford and Lecce to resign.

Legislators from the province’s New Democratic Party caucus joined
the rally and march, giving speeches from the back of a pick-up truck.
The next day in the Assembly they called Ford a liar and, one by one,
were kicked out.

Throughout the week, thousands of people joined online and in-person
events to support education workers. Almost 600 participated in a
phone zap; tens of thousands sent emails to Tory legislators; and
hundreds of parents and students rallied outside a downtown Toronto
hotel on the eve of the strike.

On Thursday, Bill 28 passed, although Ford was conspicuously absent
for the vote.

A MASSIVE, ‘ILLEGAL’ WALKOUT

From the moment of the bill’s introduction, reports were leaking
about a deep division in Ford’s caucus. One faction, led by Labour
Minister Monte McNaughton, opposed Lecce’s “nuclear
option”—leading to heated confrontations between the two
ministers. McNaughton was under intense pressure from the unions he
had courted in the last election.

Despite Ford and Lecce’s attempt to intimidate and threaten workers,
the walkout on Friday was massive: 126 active picket lines, including
more than 10,000 people at Queen’s Park and tens of thousands in
dozens of communities across the province. Parents, students,
teachers, and other unionists flooded the lines throughout the day.

The giant Ontario Public Service Employees Union sent a letter to its
8,000 members in the education sector, encouraging them to walk off
the job and join CUPE’s pickets: “Your union will have your back.
You will not have to pay any fines. And you will have the full force
of [the union] behind you should your employer attempt to enact any
discipline.”

OPSEU’s move led to the closure of schools that initially tried to
stay open despite the strike.

GENERAL STRIKE PLANNED

The groundswell of support was growing rapidly, both among the public
and within unions, where rank-and-file members were calling on their
leaders to join the strike.

The pressure was so intense that the executive board of the Ontario
Federation of Labour held an emergency meeting on Saturday morning
where it voted unanimously to call a mass protest the following
Saturday, November 12, and to launch an indefinite general strike on
Monday, November 14.

 
In the 48 hours that followed, Ontario was hurtling towards its
biggest labor protests since the 1990s.
Immediately after the vote, labor leaders rushed to “Solidarity
Saturday” actions, including one where hundreds of protesters
occupied a downtown intersection. CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn
hinted at further escalation in his speech: “We were delayed in
joining because we were meeting with other heads of unions. More will
come on that, friends, but let me tell you this, a sneak peek:
Yesterday was the beginning. It is not the end.”

Hours later, a strike planning committee met to organize actions over
the next two weeks. Word of the vote was already leaking on Twitter
and Reddit, and #GeneralStrikeON was trending all day.

WILDCATS

On Sunday, OFL affiliates including the teachers unions began calling
emergency meetings to discuss or vote on joining the strike.

Hundreds of CUPE staff representatives joined a conference call to
prepare locals—in every sector of the union, not just school
boards—to discuss the possibility of walk-outs. The leadership
assured members that the union would protect them from any fines.
Commitments to strike immediately came from large locals in the
post-secondary and municipal sectors.

By noon, Unifor made public a letter it had sent to Ford’s office,
hinting that its members in the auto sector might go out on wildcat
strikes to protest Bill 28: “We issue this notice that Unifor’s
Auto and Independent Parts Supplier Councils, in coordination with
affiliate local unions, will be exploring all options in the coming
days to respond to these actions. We stand in solidarity with CUPE
members.”

Beyond unions, the public was preparing to join the lines on Monday,
including non-union workers who were planning their own workplace
walkouts. The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario was issuing
calls to its locals to join the lines.

Support was also building outside the province. The British Columbia
Teachers’ Federation voted to donate $1 million to the strike.

Things were moving incredibly fast, with major developments coming
every hour.

GROWING RESISTANCE

In the early afternoon on Sunday, CUPE announced a press conference on
Monday at 10 a.m.

Later that day, a polling firm released the findings of an
Ontario-wide poll where half of respondents supported more unions
joining the picket lines; 71 per cent wanted Ford to change his
approach and give education workers a fair deal.

On Sunday evening, the _Toronto Star_ broke the news that labor was
planning to escalate to a province-wide general strike on November 14.

On Monday morning, CUPE’s lines were even bigger than ever. Spirits
were high and members could feel the momentum. Everyone was waiting
for labor’s announcement. It felt like a tsunami was building.

FORD’S DEFEAT

The first sign of a curveball came early on Monday, when Ford’s
office announced he would speak at 9 a.m.—one hour before labor’s
press conference.

Ford spoke slowly and deliberately. His tone was conciliatory, despite
some cheap shots. He said Bill 28 would be repealed, but only if
education workers called off their strike.

At first the magnitude of Ford’s defeat was not obvious. Many
unionists were anxious to announce the escalation and turn their
attention to building it. But as Ford’s announcement began to sink
in, and as education workers started celebrating on the lines (and
online), the scale of labor’s success came into view.

Bill 28 had turned out to be a gift from Ford: an existential threat
that helped unite the leadership of Ontario’s unions and stiffen
their resolve to take dramatic action. But with the bill gone, the
sense of urgency among some leaders started to fade.

The debate within CUPE was whether to keep the lines up or take them
down in response to Ford’s announcement—a debate that continues,
despite the decision to collapse the pickets and return to work the
next day.

This was a difficult decision, and ultimately a tactical mistake.
Workers should not give up their leverage until a deal is in hand. And
the leverage that all Ontario workers held at that moment was truly
unprecedented.

There will be many “what if” questions. But whatever
disappointment we feel about what might have happened should not
overshadow the huge victory that education workers made possible. It
is a massive defeat for Ford, and one we should not soon
forget—especially as we keep up the pressure to help education
workers get a good deal.

CROSS-UNION SOLIDARITY

Nearly 30 national and provincial labor leaders joined OSBCU and CUPE
leaders on stage at the union’s press conference, an impressive
display of solidarity by public and private sector unions.

OSBCU President Laura Walton made clear that her union’s members
won’t hesitate to return to the lines if they have to. Other
speakers emphasized that their unions would be “standing by, not
standing down” to get a good deal for education workers.

“When you come for one of us, you come for all of us,” said
OPSEU’s JP Hornick. “The Ford government may not know what it
started, but I know that, as trade unionists, we will finish it. I
know that workers united will shut this province down whenever we need
to.”

Later that day, the Ministry returned to the bargaining table with
OSBCU. Fourteen solidarity actions are now planned at Tory
legislators’ offices on Saturday. (Sign the petition: Good Deal Now!
[[link removed]])

Without a doubt, unionists across Canada are energized about this
victory and already discussing what they could do to replicate it. The
momentum could build labor’s power everywhere.

_Peter Hogarth is an Ontario public school teacher. A much longer
version of this article
[[link removed]],
including lessons for the labor movement, first appeared at _Spring
Magazine.

* Ontario Labor; Ontario School Board Council of Unions; Strike
against Bill 28;
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]