October 24, 2012 - Vol. 2 No. 4

Significance of McGuinty's Prorogation of Legislature

Liberals and Conservatives Move Anti-Worker Scheming to Back Room

Significance of McGuinty's Prorogation of Legislature
• Liberals and Conservatives Move Anti-Worker Scheming to Back Room - Jim Nugent
• Liberal Party Announces Leadership Convention - Dan Cerri

Continued Opposition to the Putting Students First Act
• Elementary Teachers Request Conciliation
• Teachers and Education Workers Continue Actions
• Overwhelming Public Support
• Ongoing Attempts to Incite the Public Against Teachers Bound to Fail - Enver Villamizar

Community College Faculty Negotiations
• The Fantasy of a Freely Negotiated Contract in the Colleges - Christine Nugent

Opposition to Privatization of Public Transit
• Toronto Executive Committee Prepares Tax Increases to Pay for Transit
• Consultation Farce on Public Transit Funding Options
• First Toronto Light Rail Transit Contract Goes to Contractor with Yellow Union

Significance of McGuinty's Prorogation of Legislature

Liberals and Conservatives Move Anti-Worker Scheming to Back Room

- Jim Nugent -

When Premier McGuinty announced his government's decision to suspend the Legislature, he cited "rancour among the parties" as the reason, particularly the inability of his minority government to pass additional anti-worker legislation against public sector workers. According to McGuinty it is necessary to suspend the Legislature so an anti-worker legislative agenda can be worked out with the Hudak Conservatives in the back rooms.

How did this situation come to be? Just over a month ago the Hudak Conservatives and the Liberal government collaborated to legislatively strip teachers and education workers of their collective bargaining rights by passing Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act. As well, before proroguing the Liberals and Conservatives had separate but virtually the same proposal to change labour relations legislation so that  collective agreements in the public sector are dictated by a government minister. What increased the rancour among the Liberals and Conservatives to such a degree that they now have to close the Legislature and take their anti-worker scheming into the back rooms?

Part of the "increased rancour" McGuinty is referring to is a result of the recent by-election in Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W). In this riding that had always been held by the Liberals or Conservatives, the electorate decisively rejected the candidates of both these parties. This has upset all the narrow, self-serving political calculations of these parties.

The Liberals and Conservatives are competing to be the champions of the neo-liberal offensive of the rich. The by-election showed these parties that the space for their political rivalry is much smaller than they thought. As a result, this rivalry has intensified, making collaboration difficult since both parties want to dominate the anti-worker agenda.

Prior to the K-W by-election, the monopoly media said it would be an important indicator for Ontario politics. According to the media's scenario, K-W would be a kind of referendum where Ontario voters would choose between Liberal and Conservative versions of how to attack public sector workers. The Liberals had carefully planned the by-election, setting its date to coincide with a legislative attack on teachers and the opening of the school year. Not to be sidelined, the Conservatives released their anti-worker white paper on changes to labour law at the same time.

These efforts and plans went awry when the working class took decisive action against the Liberals and Conservatives' attempts to use the K-W by-election to push their anti-worker offensive. Workers successfully rallied the electorate to say No! to the attacks on workers' rights. Workers occupied space in the political arena at the expense of the parties leading the neo-liberal offensive, precipitating the current standoff between the Liberals and Conservatives.

It is suggested that the Legislature may be prorogued for three to six months while the Liberal Party elects a new leader to replace McGuinty. If the Liberals and Conservatives cannot come to an agreement on public sector legislation there may even be an election. However long it takes or whatever happens, the Liberals and Conservatives will not abandon their attack on the rights of public sector workers. These attacks are a key part of the agenda of the privileged minority to drive down the standard of living of working people.

Because the K-W by-election didn't turn out as the media and politicians leading the neo-liberal offensive had planned, not much is heard about it anymore. But workers should remember it. Workers took a stand in defence of their rights, rallied the people around this stand and gave concrete political expression to their own interests. Whatever the Liberals and Conservatives come back with in their continuing attacks on the rights of public sector workers, this is how the workers will have to answer once again.

Liberal Party Announces Leadership Convention

- Dan Cerri -

The Ontario Liberal Party announced on October 22 that a leadership convention will be held the weekend of Friday, January 25, 2013 to elect a new leader for the party. The decision was made by the party's Executive Council which consists of 17 members. The location of the convention will be decided next week. The party's statement indicates that the convention will be a "delegated event" meaning only selected delegates to the convention will vote for the new leader. According to the statement:

"Delegates will be elected at Leadership Election Meetings on Saturday, January 12th and Sunday, January 13th. Those eligible to vote for the new Leader and delegates for the convention must be members of the Ontario Liberal Party no later than 11:59 pm on Friday, November 23rd."

Candidates for the Liberal leadership require the signatures of 250 members in good standing and an entry fee of $50,000, according to the party's statement. The deadline for candidates to submit their forms is Friday, November 23. McGuinty last week told his ministers that as an added requirement they must quit the Cabinet if they want to be leadership candidates.

The Toronto Star reported on October 21 that a total of 2,500 delegates will be involved in determining of the new party leader. Each riding in Ontario can send up to 16 delegates and Liberal MPPs, past and present, candidates, Liberal student club executives and other party activists are also eligible to vote, according to the Star. The article speculates that the Legislature will reconvene on February 18, 2013 with a Throne Speech.

The governing Ontario Liberal Party's process of electing a new leader also means that a select few will be choosing the next Premier of Ontario. This "democratic" process shows that the political system, including both the current electoral system and the role of parties within it, is dominated by the inner circles of party members and that the majority of people have no say in who represents these parties or who runs in elections. How can a system be deemed democratic when 2,500 people will determine the next Premier of the province? Why are only 17 members of an Executive Council determining the whole process? None of the candidates who will run for premier have been selected from among the vast majority of people. All they need to do is raise the entry fee set by the party brass.

Renewal of the political system is required. If a political party is to claim it represents the people, then candidates who run for the parties must be selected by their peers amongst the people, not the rich. Unless they are recognized as leaders in their communities for standing up for the rights of the people, how can they claim to represent the people? Most importantly, why should the leader of a political party become the Prime Minister if that party forms a government? Being a candidate for the leadership of a party should not mean being a candidate to become Prime Minister, especially when the party leader is elected by so a few people who themselves are not representative of anything except special interests.

Continued Opposition to the Putting Students First Act

Elementary Teachers Request Conciliation

On October 22, over 75 Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) locals requested conciliation in negotiations as a result of the challenges created by the passage of the Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act.

"The government disregarded Ontario's legal collective bargaining process and, instead, imposed drastic cuts to ETFO members' collective agreements and democratic rights through Bill 115," said ETFO President Sam Hammond. "This has created challenges that we haven't been able to resolve at local bargaining tables. ETFO has no choice but to ask the Ministry of Labour to assign conciliators to resolve problems that the government -- not school boards -- created."

The Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA) allows a union or employer to request third-party assistance, called conciliation, from the Ministry of Labour during negotiations. A conciliator is then appointed to try and help each local and its respective school board reach an agreement.

In September and early October, strike votes took place in ETFO locals throughout the province. A record number of ETFO members participated in those votes and delivered an overwhelming mandate for strike action.

"By delivering the highest strike vote percentages in ETFO's history, our members have sent a clear message: they reject the government's assault on their democratic rights and want to continue to participate in the collective bargaining process set out in the OLRA," said Hammond.

"If the Liberal government's goal now is to negotiate rather than legislate deals with other public sector workers it has no choice but to repeal Bill 115 which, in spite of what the Minister of Education says, goes far, far beyond a wage freeze."

"Our goal is to reach fair, legal settlements. ETFO will do everything it can to ensure our members are able to fully participate in the legal steps of the collective bargaining process. Those steps include taking strike votes and engaging in conciliation."

Teachers and Education Workers Continue Actions

Friday, October 19 saw rallies by education workers and their supporters outside the offices of two Liberal Cabinet Ministers in the Greater Toronto Area and an action in Owen Sound where Minister of Education Laurel Broten was speaking. A similar action took place on October 22 outside the constituency office of MPP Kevin Flynn in Oakville. Also on October 19, across the Greater Essex District School Board, teachers and their supporters rallied outside elementary and high schools.

Toronto

Constituency office of Liberal MPP Frank Klees, October 19, 2012.


Constituency office of Liberal MPP Eric Hoskins, October 19, 2012.

Oakville

Constituency office of Liberal MPP Kevin Flynn, October 22, 2012.

Windsor

Century Secondary School, October 19, 2012


Giles Campus Elementary School, October 19, 2012

Meanwhile, both the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) have asked their local districts to organize weekly actions in the coming period, such as information pickets and leafleting outside their schools, and mass meetings, to involve members in informing the public about why Bill 115 should be repealed.

Find out about upcoming actions in your local areas by contacting the local OSSTF and ETFO offices. For contact information for OSSTF Districts, click here. For contact information for ETFO Locals, click here.

Overwhelming Public Support

Both the Liberals and Conservatives have tried to demonize teachers and educations workers in an attempt to pit the general public, especially parents and students, against them. As a contribution to combatting these deliberate attempts to divide the people, a group of teachers and education workers are doing regular door-to-door work, speaking with parents and the general public to inform them about why teachers and education workers are taking a stand and to find out the views of the public.

This attack on teachers and education workers began during the by-election in Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W), where the Liberal party tried its hardest to win the last seat required for its majority. It distributed material that aggressively tried to pit the public against teachers using scare tactics that school would not start in September due to a strike, mistaken in their belief the public would bite and the Liberals would secure their coveted majority. The Liberals were joined in their attacks by the Hudak Conservatives. However, the people of K-W showed both McGuinty and Hudak how out of step the Liberal-Conservative tag team is with Ontarians. In the door-to-door work carried out during the by-elections people overwhelmingly supported the just stand of the teachers and education workers in defence of their rights and against Bill 115. Many of those they met were teachers or public sector workers who denounced the attempts by McGuinty to win the election on their backs.

Since the by-elections, the group has continued to go door-to-door with the petition to repeal the Putting Students First Act. They point out that parents consistently express their support for the teachers. Many parents they meet are teachers or education workers themselves, or have teachers in their families. Often these people immediately point out that their children have walked out in support of teachers. Others are unionized workers who right away see that this is a fight for workers' rights and that it affects everyone.

The group reports that with each person they speak, they explain how the legislation violates the rights of teachers and education workers to negotiate their wages and working conditions, the arbitrary powers it gives the Minister of Education, and the overall aim to remove $2.19 billion from education through the imposition of austerity measures. They point out that the legislation is being used against teachers and education workers now but it is directed against everyone and so taking a stand against it now is taking a stand for everyone. Lively discussion often ensues on the doorstep about people's general sense that governments cannot be permitted to operate in such an arbitrary undemocratic manner.

One of the misconceptions encountered is that some people think the Act has stopped teachers from participating in extra-curricular activities. When it is explained that teachers decided to stop participating in extra-curricular activities as a way to fight back against the legislation, those who held this misconception are still supportive because the teachers' stand opposes an unjust law that attacks the rights of all.

The group also reports meeting with large numbers of high school and elementary students, all of whom are aware of the legislation and enthusiastically express their support for their teachers. Many of these students participated in actions, like walkouts, at their schools and when they were threatened with suspensions for their actions, their parents fully defended them -- another sign of support for the fight teachers are waging.

Those participating in this work have seen with their own eyes that there is a great deal of support amongst the people for the just stand of teachers and education workers and can firmly reject the disinformation being floated in the media which claims that parents and students are against the teachers. This is simply not true and reveals cynical attempts by the media in the service of the government to create divisions in order to impose their anti-social agenda.

Ongoing Attempts to Incite the Public Against Teachers Bound to Fail

- Enver Villamizar -

Recently, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) advised its members to complete the Ontario Progress Report Card strictly in line with Ministry Guidelines where applicable. This has been jumped on by Minister of Education Laurel Broten and the media in an effort to incite parents and the public against teachers with claims that teachers are "putting students in the middle of the dispute" and Broten going so far as to demand that ETFO rescind its advice to its own members.

One might ask how Minister Broten and others in the Cabinet are in any position to speak about reporting to the public when the McGuinty government has prorogued the Legislature in order to avoid accounting for its actions.

What is really taking place? The Progress Report Card differs from the Ontario Report Card in that it does not give marks and that it "...was designed to give parents/guardians/caregivers an early general indication of a student's progress at the outset of the school year."

In its advice to members, ETFO stated: "[t]eachers are to use their professional judgement when completing the Progress Report Card. Teachers are not expected to comment on every subject or learning skill. A single sentence indicating strengths/next steps for improvement in each of the two comment boxes is appropriate." Where teachers have indicated a student "needs improvement," is "progressing with difficulty," or where the student is not following the expectations of the Ontario curriculum, ETFO's advice to members is that an extended comment is appropriate. This is completely in line with the Ministry of Education's own requirements.

On October 18, in response to the disinformation by media outlets and the Minister of Education herself with claims that teachers would be "put[ting] at risk the success of our kids," ETFO issued a press release entitled, "Teachers Providing What's Needed on Progress Reports for Students; Teacher-parent interviews still most important communication." In it, Sam Hammond, President of ETFO, stated: "...Our advice is based on, and conforms with, the Ministry of Education policy documents [Growing Success]..." and the parent-teacher interviews that will be taking place province-wide in November "...have always been, and will continue to be, the most effective way for teachers to communicate with parents about a student's progress."

Community College Faculty Negotiations

The Fantasy of a Freely Negotiated Contract
in the Colleges

- Christine Nugent -

Disinformation is being circulated about the recently concluded negotiations between the Ontario Government and the community college academic staff that needs to be set straight. These negotiations and the collective agreement reached are being promoted as having been "freely negotiated." They are being cited as proof that collective bargaining rights still exist for Ontario public sector workers despite the draconian attacks on workers' rights by the ruling Liberal government and the Conservative opposition. This is a preposterous whitewashing of the blackmail and trampling of college teachers' rights that took place during their negotiations.

The college academic staff agreement was reached September 10, a day before the Liberals and Conservatives passed Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act which stripped elementary and secondary teachers and school board workers of their collective bargaining rights and imposed across-the-board cuts. Threatening to extend these measures to college teachers, college administration negotiators were able to impose an unacceptable contract on college teachers.

In addition, the colleges administration threatened to unilaterally impose a contract. Recent changes to the Community Colleges Bargaining Act made by the Liberal government enabled the colleges to do this and the tactic of imposing a contract was used in the 2008-9 negotiations. In the face of all these threats, union negotiators opted for a strategic retreat to avoid a legislated or unilaterally imposed contract. By what stretch of the imagination can this type of blackmail be considered a "freely negotiated" settlement?

Rather than being an example of where workers' rights are respected and the Ontario Liberals exercise what they claim is their trademark "balanced approach," community colleges are a place where the neo-liberal offensive is pressing heavily on workers and their rights. All part-time and casual college workers have already been under a wage freeze for two years. More than half the teachers and support staff in the colleges are employed under precarious part-time and casual work arrangements. For five years the colleges and the Ontario government have been collaborating to deny these workers the right to join a union and collectively bargain.

In the education sector and throughout Ontario's public sector there is no such thing as good faith bargaining or respect for workers' collective rights in Ontario's public sector. Any talk about the alleged balanced approach or a social consensus by the Liberal party is a cruel joke and college teachers should reject it as such. Acting like the monkeys who see, hear and speak no evil only helps the privileged minority who are hell-bent on driving down the standard of living of all Ontario working people.

College teachers, other public sector workers and the entire working class have to discuss and sort out a way forward from this situation. Fantasies and wishful thinking about "freely negotiated" settlements won't help.

Opposition to Privatization of Public Transit

Toronto Executive Committee Prepares Tax Increases to Pay for Transit

At its October 9 meeting, the Executive Committee of Toronto City Council approved a report on long-term financing of transit capital, maintenance and operating costs presented by City Manager Joe Pennachetti. The main content of the report is recommendations for how to raise taxes to pay the City's share of Metrolinx's $50 billion regional transit plan.

The staff report put forward a wide range of measures to squeeze additional taxes out of Toronto's working people to pay for transit. The recommendations would leave corporations, real estate speculators, commercial and industrial property owners and other private interests that benefit from public transit relatively untouched. Proposals to raise more than $7 billion in additional revenue are included in the approved report.

Staff recommended the City undertake an intense PR campaign to justify increased taxes. The same fraudulent "community consultation" process used last year to promote widespread civic service cuts should be used again, they said. City staff would present Toronto residents with a menu of "realistic choices" to pay for transit and asked which method of increased taxes they prefer. Full mobilization of the monopoly media and the city's elite would be required to push this plan the report said. Special mention was made of a role in the campaign for two neo-liberal civic organizations, the Toronto Board of Trade and Civic Action Alliance.

The staff plan calls for the revenue scheme to be presented to City Council early in the spring after the consultation farce and a six-month PR campaign on the need for tax increases has been completed. Presentation of the final plan to Council is timed to meet provincial requirements that funding arrangements for transit expansion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) be in place by June 2012. At that time, the provincial crown corporation Metrolinx will report on funding arrangements with municipalities for its regional transit plan.

Metrolinx was given control of urban transit planning and funding for the GTHA in the Metrolinx Act passed by the Liberal government in 2006. Under this Act, Metrolinx has to produce a long-term plan for urban transit expansion throughout Toronto and the surrounding areas, including Hamilton and Oshawa and extending to Georgetown, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo. The Act also required that Metrolinx produce a report by June 2013 on how the costs of the transit expansion will be allocated among the municipalities of the GTHA region.

In 2008 Metrolinx produced the GTHA Regional Transportation Plan, which in Metrolinx PR was dubbed The Big Move. This is a 25-year transit infrastructure expansion plan involving $50 billion in public spending for capital costs alone. At least the same level of funding will be required for the maintenance and operating costs during the 25-year period.

The City of Toronto staff report estimates that in its June 2013 report, Metrolinx will allocate $4 billion a year in costs among the regional municipalities, with a large share of this being allocated to Toronto. The recent decision of Toronto's Executive Committee begins the process to increase taxes on Toronto residents in anticipation of the revenue Metrolinx will demand.

Consultation Farce on Public Transit Funding Options

The table below is adapted from the staff report on transit funding strategies approved by the Executive Committee of Toronto City Council on October 9. Similar funding strategies are being considered by the other municipalities involved in the Metrolinx Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Regional Transit Plan, the so called Big Move.

Toronto city staff set out the tax increases listed in the table below as the only "realistic options" to pay for transit expansion. City staff plans to organize a consultation farce over the winter in which discussion will be limited to these narrow, pre-determined options for transit funding.

Seventy per cent of the options to raise the City's share of transit funding will increase taxes for individual residents. Only 30 per cent of the revenue options will increase taxes on corporations, land speculators, commercial and industrial property owners and other private interests that benefit from transit expansion. Most of the provincial share of the transit funding for the regional transit expansion will also come from individual taxation in the form of income tax and sales tax.

The options to tax private interests represent a relatively small amount of revenue and they are ranked as low priority in the City staff report. This indicates that they will be downplayed during the City's PR campaign on transit funding. Payroll taxes, for example, are the lowest ranked option even though employers reap huge benefits from transit expansion with workers travelling to their jobs and customers using transit to get to malls and stores. Other taxes on private interests are also given low priority ranking as revenue sources, including the options of parking levies, development charges, land transfers taxes and property taxes. Raising corporate income tax was not even considered, the staff report says, because "it is a disincentive to investment."

First Toronto Light Rail Transit Contract Goes to Contractor with Yellow Union

The Ontario Liberals advertise themselves as "friends of the building trades" but a recent decision of the government on the Toronto light rail transit (LRT) project exposes this as deceptive political posturing. The Liberal government has awarded the first major construction contract on the $8.4 billion LRT project to a consortium headed by Kenaidan Contracting. Kenaidan is a member of the anti-union political organization Merit Ontario, an association of anti-union construction contractors. It is also a signatory with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), a "yellow" or company union used to attack workers' rights and undermine legitimate workers' defence organizations.[1]

This decision by the Ontario government to award a contract to Kenaidan overthrows the longstanding fair wage policy of the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) on City transit projects and other City construction work. It also dead-ends the 2010 decision of the City to respect construction workers' union contracts on the LRT work through a project labour agreement with the building trades.

The Kenaidan contract award was announced by the Ontario government transit agency Metrolinx on September 10. A consortium headed by Kenaidan Contracting/Obayashi Canada was handed a $323 million contract for 6.2 km of tunnelling on the west end of the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT. The other members of the tunnelling contract consortium are Kenny Construction, an American large diameter tunnelling company and Technicore Underground, a York Region company manufacturing mining and small diameter tunnelling equipment.

Kenaidan is a preferred contractor of Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario, another provincial government agency.[2] Through Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario, Kenaidan has been used by the Liberal government to push anti-union contracting into transit and other public infrastructure sectors under the hoax of "open tendering."

Last year, the Obayashi Group bought controlling interest in Kenaidan to exploit its close connections with the Ontario government. Obayashi is a global infrastructure construction-financing monopoly based in Japan with annual revenue of $15 billion. Kenaidan and Obayashi now work together on government contracts. With Obayashi's financial resources, the scope of work Kenaidan can take on is virtually unlimited. The government is opening the door wide for Kenaidan-Obayashi to further insinuiate anti-union, anti-worker private interests into public infrastructure projects.

This decision by the Ontario Liberals about the Toronto LRT project shows that no section of the working class is secure from the neo-liberal offensive to drive down the living standards of working people. All workers and all workers' defence organizations are targets of the anti-worker offensive led in Ontario by the Liberal Party and the Hudak Conservatives.

The arrangements and ways of doing business under the post-war social contract no longer exist. All workers have to address themselves to the current situation, including resisting and turning back this anti-worker offensive by developing independent political stands that serve their interests and that of the society. All workers and workers' organizations have to soberly reflect on who are their real friends and allies and sum up the experience of dealing with self-serving politicians who present themselves as "friends of labour." When workers' collective rights are under such an intense attack, friends and allies are those who can be rallied to defend workers' rights and the rights of all.

Notes

1. Merit Canada, which has eight provincial wings, is a political organization of the biggest monopolies operating in Canada and the contractors associated with them. It currently has a major base among the oil and gas monopolies in Alberta. The Christian Labour Alliance of Canada (CLAC) is a yellow/company "union" organization which is mainly active in the Alberta oil/gas fields.
      The main tactic for Merit contractors and the resource extraction monopolies is to use CLAC to impose substandard labour agreements on large projects. Owners write up a project agreement, CLAC signs it and then these wages and working conditions are imposed on all workers on the project. For more information about the anti-union CLAC tactics of the monopolies see "Alberta Government Holds Closed Door Meetings to Change Labour Law, " TML Weekly, September 17, 2011 - No. 11.
2. Kenaidan has received more than 50 major contracts from Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx. It has done $500 million in projects for Metrolinx subsidiary GO Transit. The Kenaidan-Obayashi group is currently working on a $183 million cut-and-cover tunnelling project in Weston and on other work for Metrolinx's Georgetown GO Train project. Prior to receiving the Eglinton LRT tunnelling contract, Kenaidan had already received contracts for preparatory work on the LRT tunnel launch area.

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