[The strike has turned into a class-wide fight over fundamental
workers’ rights and the right to fight for a better life.]
[[link removed]]

ONTARIO’S EDUCATION WORKERS ARE ON STRIKE  
[[link removed]]


 

David Bush
November 6, 2022
spring: a magazine of socialist ideas in action
[[link removed]]

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

_ The strike has turned into a class-wide fight over fundamental
workers’ rights and the right to fight for a better life. _

,

 

On Friday, 55,000 Ontario education workers with CUPE walked off the
job in an “illegal” strike
[[link removed]].
They were joined by OPSEU education workers, who also “illegally”
walked off the job. Over 2.1 million students were out of school as
school boards were forced to shut down schools.

Pickets lines were up outside Conservative MPP offices and elsewhere
in the province. In Toronto, a massive all-day picket line and rally
was held at Queen’s Park, which the media estimated reached 10,000
people. But it wasn’t just striking workers; a huge number of
parents, students, trade unionists, and other workers showed up. The
mood was electric and defiant, and it was clear the fight was much
broader than just education workers’ demands.

Their strike has turned into a class-wide fight over fundamental
workers’ rights
[[link removed]] and
the right to fight for a better life.

HOW WE GOT HERE

Education workers have faced legislated wage suppression for more than
a decade–in the form of Bill 115 and Bill 124 from a Liberal and
Tory government respectively. During the height of the pandemic,
education workers were told they were essential, but their paycheques
didn’t reflect that fact. Between 2011 and 2021, they experienced an
effective wage cut of over 11 percent. Their average annual wage is
$39,000; more than half work a second job (or more) to make ends meet
and over 25 percent regularly use a food bank.

With a worsening cost-of-living crisis underway, it was clear there
was a strong demand for higher wages and better working conditions as
a bargaining approach
[[link removed]] –
something that has deeply resonated with other workers. The union was
asking for a $3.25 per hour increase to catch up with inflation. After
months of intensive and systematic organizing and literally tens of
thousands member-to-member conversations, members gave a resounding
mandate by voting over 96.5% to strike, with a turnout of 82.6%. It
was this from-below, rank-and-file-focused approach that built a
massive movement inside the union, and has made possible such a
confident strike so far.

The government played hardball during negotiations, and it has now
been revealed they were drafting anti-strike legislation long before
negotiations got underway. When they finally came to the table, they
offered workers a well-below-inflation wage increase of 1.5 percent
(with some getting 2 percent). In the middle of negotiations, the
government announced it was taking money out of public education by
issuing cheques for $200 to $250 per child to parents to spend on
educational services. These so-called “catch-up payments
[[link removed]]”
were an overt attempt to bribe the public and, worse, to accelerate
the privatization of public education. All that money could have been
used to meet the workers’ demands and dramatically improve
students’ learning conditions.

CONCESSIONARY CONTRACT

After the “no-board” report was issued, November 3 became the
earliest possible date the workers could go on strike. Negotiations
and mediation were ongoing, but it was clear the government had no
intention of bargaining. CUPE was preparing for a strike, holding
regional meetings and discussing with their members the potential
government response to their strike.

When the OSBCU issued its strike notice on Sunday, triggering a
November strike deadline, the government responded within hours
declaring that they would introduce legislation that imposed a
concessionary contract on education workers and take away their right
to strike. While the government claimed it was doing everything in
order to keep kids in school, it was doing anything but. The immediate
reaction to the news on Sunday was pure fury by education workers and
parents.

The following day, when the government introduced Bill 28 (the
so-called “Keeping Students in Class Act”), they inserted the
notwithstanding clause into the legislation. They knew their
legislation was an unprecedented violation of the _Charter_, but
didn’t care. It was meant to add fuel to the fire, by attacking all
labour rights, not just education workers.

SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

But their plan appears to have backfired – spectacularly. For the
last month, there has been a burgeoning solidarity campaign with
education workers, rank-and-file teachers, and decent work activists,
led by the Justice for Workers
[[link removed]] campaign. Education workers
themselves have been extremely organized and started reaching out at a
rank-and-file level to community members and fellow trade unionists.
Their #39KIsNotEnough [[link removed]] campaign has
energized and organized their members, and inspired the wider public.

Justice for Workers initiated a “Paint the Province Purple
[[link removed]]”
campaign and began to coordinate solidarity days outside schools.
Supporters postered schools, tied purple ribbons on fences and street
lights, posted solidarity messages online–such as this inspiring
video
[[link removed]] from
the Migrant Workers’ Alliance for Change
[[link removed]]–and engaged parents to sign
pledge sheets to support education workers.

Throughout October, these actions were repeated and grew. OSBCU
provided leaflets and Justice for Workers “Support Education
Workers” posters started to appear across the province.
Rank-and-file teachers and parent groups, such as the Ontario Parent
Action Network [[link removed]] (OPAN), played a key role in
building and amplifying these actions, as did the Ontario Federation
of Labour [[link removed]] (OFL), Ontario’s central labour body.
These actions helped create a network of supporters who were ready and
willing to take action to support education workers.

A WEEK OF STRUGGLE 

So when the Tories introduced Bill 28 and widened the fight, there was
already a layer of activists beyond the union’s 55,000 education
workers ready to mobilize and build on the months of organizing the
workers had done amongst themselves and their education colleagues and
in their communities. On Monday, the OFL called an emergency rally in
Toronto in response to Bill 28, and over 3,500 people took to the
streets in under a day’s notice. This number far exceeded
everyone’s expectations, but quickly showed there was a large
appetite for action.

On Wednesday, the day after the emergency protest, as Bill 28 was
being forced through the legislature, NDP MPPs were tossed out of the
legislature for calling Premier Doug Ford a liar. The mood was defiant
and helped build the confidence of NDP members and voters to resist
the attacks on education workers and workers’ rights. That night,
over 500 people joined the Justice for Workers phone zap, making over
2,000 calls to Conservative MPPs.

On Thursday, OPSEU had also announced it would support its education
workers walking off the job on Friday. This was a clear message of
defiance and a real escalation of the struggle. The evening before the
strike, OPAN organized a rally of parents and families who gathered
outside a downtown Toronto hotel where bargaining was underway inside.
Hundreds of parents and kids showed up, again exceeding organizers’
expectations.

OPAN  has been crucial in helping push back against the narrative
that parents are opposed to the education workers strike. By late
Thursday, it was clear the mediation had completely collapsed and
education workers would be out an “illegal” strike.

Schools boards announced their closures. Ford and Education Minister
Lecce’s claim that they would do anything to keep kids in school had
completely blown up in their face. The momentum was clearly with
education workers and their supporters.

On Friday, education workers walked in defiance of Ford’s law. In
Toronto the big picket line at Queen’s Park drew tens of thousands.
Education workers put up picket lines right across the province in a
stunning show of force. Numbers everywhere far exceeded expectations
as education wokers were joined by parents, students, community
members and fellow trade unionists.

On Saturday another emergency rally was called by the OFL with just
hours notice. It ended up shutting down the main intersection of Yonge
and Dundas.

Momentum

The entire week of actions helped build the confidence of people to
act and put the Conservatives on their back foot. Early polling
[[link removed]] has
shown broad public support for the education workers. This has steeled
those inside the labour movement who wanted to take the fight to the
Tories. Unions which had previously supported the Conservatives, like
LIUNA, had started to publicly distance themselves. Elementary
teachers who were bargaining with the government this week walked away
from the table.

Whatever reservations some union leaders have had about publicly
supporting education workers, the growing pressure from below,
including from their own members who are leading the call for a fight,
has pushed them closer to action. An important section of the labour
leadership in Ontario – CUPE’s OSBCU, CUPE Ontario, OPSEU, and
UNIFOR – have been leading and supporting the fight for education
workers, and pushing other unions to to follow them. The massive
outpouring of support from their members, other workers, and the wider
public has vindicated their principled approach.

Things are moving extremely fast, and could escalate in the coming
days. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587 [[link removed]],
representing Go Transit workers in the province, rejected their
tentative deal by 81 percent and are set to strike on Monday at
12:01am. This strike, motivated by Metrolinx’s contracting out and
wages, could turn out to be very disruptive and add to the sense that
the Conservatives are a government of chaos. Discussions have been
underway in all of CUPE Ontario (not just the education workers) about
what they could do to join this fight. If the entire union takes
action, it could unleash a massive response from the rest of labour.

For socialists and activists, the key task is to deepen and expand the
kind of rank-and-file solidarity across all unions, and among
non-union workers and the wider public, that has pushed reluctant
leaders into action and that has built support and backing for the
progressive, left-wing leaders who were already ready to fight and
pushing hard in the labour movement.

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH

We can only beat Ford, defeat the attack on workers’ rights and
ensure workers get what they deserve by escalating the struggle.

If we backtrack, if we slow down our fight or hesitate we are in
trouble. The massive “illegal” strike by CUPE education workers
and the “illegal” OPSEU education worker walkout have set the
stage for a huge fight. ATU’s GO transit strike on Monday will
escalate it further.

It’s only a few days into the inspiring strike of education workers,
but it looks as if it could grow into a much bigger fight–not just
for a fair settlement for those workers–but to repeal Bill 28 and to
fight for decent work for all workers in the province. 

Tories are on their back foot. Splits in the Tory party are real, but
thus far are only occurring in the backrooms. We need to keep the heat
on to crack the party. That means supporting increased worker action,
public protests and continuing to building solidarity everywhere. We
have to widen the struggle.

We can win this, but we can’t let up even for one second.

_DAVID BUSH is a contributor to Spring Magazine_

_SPRING is a magazine of socialist ideas in action, published by the
Spring Socialist Network._

_In a world of escalating climate disasters that are inflicted most on
those least responsible, we want a new world of climate justice. In a
society that divides people by race, sexuality, gender, ability,
religion and nationality, we want a new society free from all forms of
oppression_

_In an economy based on extracting profits from human labour, we want
a new economy based on democratic control by workers. In the context
of the Canadian state, based on colonizing Indigenous territories and
oppressing Quebec, we support Indigenous sovereignty and national
liberation._

_In this same manner, we are internationalist: for workers of the
world to unite, we need to break the chains of immigration control,
and create a world free from war. We fight alongside those who want to
make the world a better place, by building movements based on
self-emancipation and solidarity._

_We make use of parliamentary elections to raise the profile of
movements for change, recognizing that real change comes from below
through collective action. As a revolutionary socialist organization,
we seek to learn and apply the lessons of past and ongoing struggles,
to help movements through the challenges and victories ahead, from the
reforms we can win in the present to the mass transformation we need
in the future. _

_Socialist ideas…
Spring aims to learn from struggles, apply their lessons and socialist
politics to building movements, and through the process build
socialist organization._

_As Egyptian revolutionary Hossam El-Hamalawy explained, “the
process of journalism is a process of organization… you sending a
report means that you are engaged on the ground at the same time as
you are connected to the rest of the members of the movement…
correspondence with the site is not a luxury or only the
responsibility of the small number of comrades who run the site, but
should continue to be the task of the largest possible number of
comrades, if not all of them.”_

_…in action
Changing the world starts with the fight for reforms in the here and
now. As Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg explained, “between
social reforms and revolution there exists an indissoluble tie. The
struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aim.”_

_We seek to build movements based on working class struggle and
anti-oppression, supporting Indigenous communities and low-carbon
workers in the fight for climate justice, racialized workers in the
Fight for $15 and Fairness, and newcomer communities in the fight for
housing justice._

_We also build our own events to raise the profile of socialist
politics, and our own meetings so we can discuss and debate our next
steps. _

_Donate to Spring via their website: [link removed]

* Canada
[[link removed]]
* Ontario
[[link removed]]
* Conservative Party of Canada
[[link removed]]
* Teachers Unions
[[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]