Ontario’s education minister says the province has “no tolerance for disruption” as a hearing to determine the legality of a walkout by education workers continues this weekend.
A government lawyer argued during the hearing Saturday that the Ontario Labor Relations Board risks undermining the province’s labor laws if it does not declare a walkout by 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees illegal (CUP).
“Ensuring that an illegal strike is not allowed to continue is a very important industrial relations objective, and if you did not exercise your discretion to do so, it would significantly undermine the very clear prohibition on strike activity that is a key feature of the Labor Relations Act,” said Ferina Merji.
Thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job on Friday to protest the passage of government legislation banning strikes and imposing a four-year contract.
The Progressive Conservative government included the clause nonetheless in its education worker legislation, saying it intends to use it to protect itself from constitutional challenges.
“We have zero tolerance for disruption. We made it very clear over the summer through the catch-up plan, children must stay in school,” Education Minister Stephen said on Saturday Lecce on CBC News.
Lecce has said the government had no choice but to proceed with its legislation to avoid a strike and keep students in classrooms after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning in recent years.
LOOK | Lecce says the province will continue to use all tools to open schools:
Ontario education minister calls walkout ‘unacceptable’, says CUPE offer ‘fair’
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the provincial government will use whatever means are available to end the walkout of CUPE-represented education workers.
Laura Walton, president of the CUPE Ontario School Union Council, said the Ontario government was negotiating “in bad faith.”
“The fact that they were working on this legislation before any strike notice was provided should tell the people of Ontario all you need to know,” Walton told CBC News on Saturday.
“They had no intention of ever negotiating in good faith. In fact, coming to a table and saying if you don’t withdraw your right to strike, we’re not going to negotiate is really … the definition of bad. Good faith bargaining.”
The province argues that the work stoppage is equivalent to a strike
CUPE claims the industrial action is a political protest rather than a strike.
It argued in its documents to the council that the purpose of its members’ action is to “express opposition through political protest to the [province’s] decision to trample on employees’ constitutionally protected right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.”
“Regardless of what label anyone puts on the activity, Mr. President, it is a work stoppage. And a work stoppage, by any other name, is still a work stoppage, and therefore a strike, period Merji told the audience. .
Merji said the government’s conduct at the bargaining table is irrelevant in an illegal strike claim and is instead the scope of an unfair labor practice complaint.
Merji said this walkout is illegal because the Labor Relations Act prohibits work stoppages while contracts are in place, arguing that CUPE leadership knowingly advised education workers to commit to a illegal strike
LOOK | The representative of the CUPE reacts to the comments of the Minister of Education:
Ontario “had no intention of ever negotiating in good faith” with the union, says CUPE representative
Laura Walton, president of the CUPE Ontario School Board Union Council, says the provincial government was “working more on legislation than negotiation” with the union that represents education workers.
He played a video of CUPE-Ontario president Fred Hahn saying the union would offer the same benefits to workers as in any strike.
Merji also shared a video of Laura Walton, chair of the CUPE Ontario School Board Union Council, comparing the walkout to the one planned for 2019. At the time, CUPE and the government reached a last-ditch agreement hour the day before the workers had decided to go on a full strike.
CUPE had initially requested that both Lecce and Andrew Davis, the assistant deputy minister, be called to testify before the board.
Board chairman Brian O’Byrne ruled Lecce is exempt from testifying because of parliamentary privilege, but said Davis could be called to testify.
But after hours of delays, a CUPE lawyer said it would not ask Davis to provide evidence, because documents the union also wanted to submit as evidence could not be made available.
What the CUPE workers are protesting
CUPE workers walked out on Friday in what they called the start of an indefinite walkout in protest at the government’s passage of the controversial legislation. Members of other unions, including the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Unifor, also joined the pickets.
The British Columbia Federation of Teachers announced Saturday afternoon that it voted to send $1 million so CUPE members “don’t have to back down.”
The new government law has set fines for violating the ban on strikes of up to $4,000 per employee per day, which could rise to $220 million for the 55,000 workers, and up to $500,000 per day for the union. CUPE has said it will fight the fines, but will also pay them if necessary.
The solidarity protest starts on Saturday
Education workers and supporters took over Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas and other busy intersections across the province on Saturday to show solidarity with CUPE amid ongoing labor action.
“We know that everyone has a right to negotiate,” York District School Board teacher Ned Sharp said at the rally.
York District School Board teacher Ned Sharp joined hundreds of supporters who took over downtown Toronto on Saturday in solidarity with striking CUPE workers. (Greg Bruce/CBC)
The walkout has led the vast majority of school boards in the province to shut down face-to-face learning, with many saying they will move to full online learning next week if the industrial action continues.
School closings have also affected childcare arrangements for thousands of Ontario parents, with many scrambling to find last-minute caregivers or taking time off work to help their children learn remotely.
While students should be in class, he says they should only be in school with the appropriate supports that CUPE education workers help provide.
“There’s not enough money for them, there’s not enough time for them, there’s not enough in any of our schools. And we have to make this change because teachers can’t work without our school workers. ‘education with us’.
Impact of departure on parents, students
Traci Clarke, a parent, volunteer and member of the Ottawa Special Education Advisory Committee, agrees.
She has a 19-year-old son on the autism spectrum and says that when schools closed, it gave him the choice of learning online or going with his father, an education worker, to his online nearest picket
“He’s done with online learning. He never wants to do it again,” Clarke said.
LOOK | Ontario parents on how the education worker walkout has affected their families:
Ontario parents share the impact of the education worker walkout on their families
Two parents from the province discuss the ongoing dispute between the Ontario government and the union representing education workers and how it’s affecting their children.
Heather Donovan, parent of a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with dyslexia, says her son also struggles with online learning.
While he understands why the workers are on strike, he said he questions whether everything has been done to prevent this from happening.
“Everybody’s struggling and that’s the last thing our kids need right now,” Donovan said.
“I just feel that this was such a drastic decision and that not enough other options were offered.”