(Toronto) Ontario has just passed a law making illegal the right to strike of the 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and imposed a contract on them.
Posted at 6:29 p.m.
However, the union said it would still go on strike from Friday, for an indefinite period.
Many school boards have said they will have to close schools unable to operate them safely without CUPE members such as early childhood educators, janitors and administrative staff, and the union has warned parents to expect closures next week as well.
New law imposes a contract on education workers, after mediation between the Ontario government and CUPE ended without an agreement on Thursday, and prohibits them from striking – including the notwithstanding clause to protect them constitutional challenges.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the new law was needed to keep children in class.
The legislation provides for fines for violating the ban on strikes for the duration of the agreement, of up to $4,000 per employee per day, while the union is fined up to ‘at $500,000.
CUPE had earlier indicated that even if the special law is passed, and makes the strike illegal, it was maintaining its slogan of Friday walkout “until further notice” for its 55,000 members in the education sector – teacher’s aides, janitors, librarians, daycare educators or administrative staff.
The Ministry of Education is asking school boards to do “everything possible” to keep schools open, or else switch to remote learning.
Many school boards across the province, including Toronto’s, have said schools will be closed in the event of a strike, while others plan to move to online learning.
The Department of Education says in a memo obtained by The Canadian Press that school boards should “implement contingency plans, where every effort is made 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.”
The special law provides for the “preventive remedy” of the notwithstanding provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, since the right to strike is protected by this charter.
Premier Doug Ford said education workers left him “no choice” but to pass legislation to avert a strike. Mr Ford says pupils have already suffered two years of disruption due to the pandemic and his government will use all the tools at its disposal to ensure children stay in class full time.
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 denounce the use of the special law.
Many school boards with unionized OPSEU employees had already announced that the strike by CUPE union members would force them to close their schools, including the Peel and York school boards, which represent the largest contingent of OPSEU members.
Two other school boards, in Sudbury and Simcoe County, announced Thursday they would close schools following OPSEU’s planned walkout on Friday.
OPSEU President JP Hornick said in a statement Thursday morning that the Ford government’s “unconstitutional and undemocratic” law was “not just an attack on the right to collective bargaining of education workers, it is an attack on the rights of all workers”.
Two major unions representing elementary 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 the CUPE outside working hours.
The Secondary Teachers Federation and the Elementary Teachers Federation are both in the midst of negotiations with the Ford government for the renewal of collective agreements.
No negotiations under threat
CUPE said Wednesday that these members plan to continue the strike beyond Friday, unless an agreement is reached by then with the government. Day camps have sprung up across Ontario ahead of Friday’s strike.
CUPE had presented a counter-offer on Tuesday evening, but Minister Lecce said Wednesday that he would not negotiate again until the union withdrew its strike call for Friday.
The government initially proposed increases of 2% per year for workers earning less than $40,000 and 1.25% for everyone else. The new four-year agreement decreed by special law would grant 2.5% increases per year for workers earning less than $43,000 and 1.5% for all others.
CUPE argues that this proposal is actually based on hourly wages and salary scales, so the majority of workers earning less than $43,000 a year would not get this 2.5% increase.
The union was originally asking for annual increases of 11.7%, arguing that these workers, who earn an average of $39,000 a year, are generally the lowest paid in the entire school system.