Ontario Political Forum

Teachers and education workers rally at Liberal leadership debate, Ottawa, December 18, 2012 (left); teachers,
education workers and supporters picket Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin's office in Waterdown, December 17, 2012 (right).

Teachers and Education Workers Continue to Say No!

Teachers and education workers with the Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario continued their one-day strikes this past week in regions across Ontario to oppose the bullying tactics of Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act, 2012. Actions were held on December 17 in the Hamilton-Wentworth, Rainy River, James Bay and Rainbow school districts; followed December 18 in Toronto, Waterloo Region, Peel, Lambton-Kent, Near North, Greater Essex, Grand Erie and Durham; and on December 19 in Bluewater, Algoma and Halton. In all, the strikes involved some 35,000 teachers and education workers representing almost half of all those in the province.

In their attempts to pass the anti-social austerity agenda, the rich and their political representatives continue to face opposition from the teachers and education workers. The one-day strikes reaffirmed the broad support for their stand as people honked and waved as they drove by the picket lines. Many people in the communities dropped by to visit teachers on the picket lines, while restaurants provided food, warming stations and the use of washroom facilities. This reality is in stark contrast to the disinformation about so-called anti-teacher sentiments spread by some politicians and the monopoly media. Many teachers and education workers left the picket lines with renewed confidence.

In their fight to repeal Bill 115, teachers and education workers represent the fight for a bright future for Ontario including the recognition of the rights of all. It is a fight that the working class has taken up to defeat any political party that attempts to impose the neo-liberal anti-social offensive on behalf of the rich, and it goes back to the Days of Action against the Harris government and more recently the defeat of the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives (PCs) in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election.

Teachers and education workers have taken a just stand in their opposition to dictate and demand that their knowledge and skills, like all those of all who contribute to the Ontario economy, must be recognized with dignity. The latest threats by Education Minister Laurel Broten to impose contracts after the December 31 deadline under Bill 115 do nothing to change the fact that the Liberal government, allied with the PCs, is to blame for this mess because of their attempts to implement their version of austerity. Ontario Political Forum salutes the teachers and education workers as they continue their fight into the new year.

Oppose Flimsy Attempts to Divert
the Movement Against Bill 115

The demand to repeal Bill 115 has become a converging point for the movement against the austerity agenda in Ontario. As a result, there are new attempts by the Liberals and PCs and the media in their service to try and divert this movement and destroy the coherence it has achieved. Their hope is to get away with the theft of billions from public education to pay the rich by keeping the anti-social parameters of Bill 115 in place.

The most recent diversion is a so-called peace plan put forward by Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy. In it, Kennedy proposes a mechanism to get teachers and education workers' unions to re-start a Provincial Discussion Table-style process. This would embroil the union leadership in various "table discussions" to provide "advice" for the new Liberal leader on how to impose a new contract that would achieve the same "fiscal targets" in a more "fair and equitable" manner.

His proposal would also have the government hold off imposing contracts on January 1 in return for teachers and education workers holding off further labour actions and school boards agreeing not to lock them out or change their working conditions until the end of February. In other words, the deal would provide labour peace precisely until the end of the Liberal leadership race, following which the new leader can emerge with a "clean slate" and impose a contract with the same anti-social aims and parameters.

Another attempt to divert the movement is the assertion that if teachers and education workers stick to their opposition to Bill 115, it may lead to the election of a Hudak Conservative government that would attack workers' rights even more viciously than the Liberals. This is presented to convince those fighting in defence of rights -- of teachers, education and other workers, and students -- that they are better off with the Liberals and that they should be pragmatic and give up their principled opposition to Bill 115 rather than risk a PC majority or minority government.

A final attack on the thinking of teachers and education workers in particular, linked with the attempts to create fear about a PC victory, is the claim that the PCs would legislate extra-curricular activities into teachers' job descriptions if they come to power. Hudak has said he is going to release a White Paper on education which will include this idea, among others. This is being pushed when in fact some point out that the Liberals already have the mechanisms to declare the withdrawal of extra-curricular activities strike actions and make them illegal under Bill 115.

All three of these positions have one thing in common: the aim to get Ontario teachers and education workers in particular and the entire working class in general to give up its own thinking and organized resistance so that it is left vulnerable and unable to defend its interests now and in the future. They also reveal the real fear of the ruling circles in Ontario that there could be a repeat, province-wide, of what took place in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election: the workers' opposition organizing to defeat both the Liberals and PCs by defeating Bill 115 through strike actions, legal or illegal, and/or through direct political intervention in a general election.

Regardless of what happens, as teachers and education workers continue to fight they are recognizing that it is in the fight for the rights of all that they will be in a position to defend their rights today, tomorrow and well into the future. The attempts to use the fear of a Hudak majority, or to try and sweep the growing opposition to Bill 115 under the rug until after the Liberal leadership convention are bound to fail because teachers and education workers and those standing with them have firmly grasped that this is a fight worth fighting because it is for everyone's rights.

Strike Actions Receive Broad Support

Ministry of Education (Toronto)

Toronto District School Board

In Toronto, hundreds of elementary school teachers supported by librarians, public sector workers and concerned citizens held a militant picket in front of the Toronto District School Board offices in North York on December 18. The teachers and their allies were in fighting spirit and their action was met with wide support from passers-by as well as traffic on Yonge Street. A mass picket also took place at the Queen's Park offices of the Ministry of Education.

Martin Long, the President of Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT), told Ontario Political Forum that the strike in Toronto was part of teachers' actions to affirm their rights. Long pointed out that Minister Laurel Broten and the Liberal government have been high-handed in their tactics against the teachers and education workers but they will not be cowed by this. He said that the general public sympathizes with their struggle. "We feel the support of the public, despite the reports in the media," he noted. He underlined the determination of the elementary teachers to stand united and to fight each step of the way to affirm their rights. He stated that at several actions, secondary school teachers and some parents joined the picket lines during their lunch hour. CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn and other CUPE executive and members were also at various picket lines in Toronto to express their support and solidarity.

Andy Lomnicki, Vice-President of the ETT Local, said that teachers do not countenance the patronizing and condescending attitude of Minister Broten who deigned to "allow a one day strike" because the teachers had given notice. He said teachers will continue organizing to put forward their demands for justice and the repeal of Bill 115.

Broad support for the elementary teachers was demonstrated in Education Minister Broten's Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore. High school teachers joined one of the pickets during their lunch hour and two local restaurants sent food to this same picket line. Educational workers, such as support staff working in the day care centres, visited picket lines to show their support.

Similar support was shown throughout the province this past week. It reflects the spirit of the call Kill the Bill!, which has become popular among students, who last week demonstrated in support of the teachers and education workers' fight.

Durham District School Board

Halton District School Board

Peel Region District School Board

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board

Hamilton elementary teachers were joined by steelworkers and other supporters on the picket lines, December 17, 2012. Top: Prince of Wales Elementary School; middle: G.R. Allen Elementary School; bottom: picket at Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin's office in Waterdown.

Waterloo Region District School Board

In the Waterloo region, teachers and education workers held pickets at several locations on December 18. Strategic pickets were located at the constituency offices of Kitchener-Centre Liberal MPP John Milloy and Kitchener-Conestoga Progressive Conservative MPP Michael Harris. Some of those on the picket lines in Cambridge and Kitchener told Ontario Political Forum that they stand against Bill 115 for its violation of rights. They reaffirmed that their strikes are not about money but for collective bargaining rights that are trampled by Bill 115.

At a rally held in Kitchener following the pickets, representatives from the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) spoke about the campaign to defeat Bill 115 and to reinstate collective bargaining rights. Ontario Political Forum spoke with teachers and their representatives there. Greg Weiler, President of the ETFO local for the Waterloo District School Board, said that the day was positive in terms of the support shown for the teachers and education workers on the picket lines. He reiterated his comments to the crowd that Bill 115 ruins the process of bargaining and that action must be taken now before it is too late. Judy Cutts, President of the Waterloo Region Occasional Teachers Local, said it is important to be vigilant at this time because Bill 115 attempts to destroy the gains made by teachers and others in the past.

Grand Erie District School Board

Lambton-Kent District School Board

Greater Essex County District School Board

On the picket lines and at MPPs' offices in Windsor, December 18, 2012

The picket lines in Windsor and Essex County were bounding with confidence with many OSSTF members answering the call to stand with the elementary teachers joining picket lines during their lunch. The enthusiasm was no doubt due to the fact that teachers and education workers have become very conscious that their fight is for everyone in the society and this has unleashed their confidence. This was clear as many held signs modeled on ETFO's billboards "If You Work in Ontario, This is Your Fight," or created homemade signs which clearly oppose the anti-democratic nature of Bill 115. Pickets were held at a number of elementary schools, as well as at the offices of the two local Liberal MPPs' Dwight Duncan and Teresa Piruzza.

Algoma District School Board

Rainbow District School Board

Rainy River District School Board

Protest at Liberal Leadership Debate in Ottawa

Elementary Teachers Call for Government to Allow
Local Collective Bargaining

On December 21 the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) called a media conference to inform the public about the job actions its members have been carrying out to oppose Bill 115. ETFO President Sam Hammond congratulated the elementary teachers for their successful actions and thanked the public for the broad support that teachers and school board support workers have received during their struggle against Bill 115. "The chorus of opposition to Bill 115 has been loud and clear," Hammond said.

The ETFO president presented an update on the position of the 76,000 public elementary school teachers who have been carrying out job actions for several weeks, including rotating strikes which affected all public schools in Ontario during the past two weeks.

Hammond said that the teachers would be suspending their job actions effective immediately and would continue trying to negotiate collective agreements with local school boards. He said the suspension of job actions would continue until January when the Liberal Party holds its leadership convention and elects a new leader and provincial premier.

This suspension he said is intended to provide the Minister of Education Laurel Broten and the government with an option for ending the chaotic situation they created by passing Bill 115. Bill 115 gives the Education Minister unprecedented powers to impose collective agreements on school boards and locals after December 31, 2012 and prohibit legal strike action. However, he said, there is nothing in the bill that requires her to exercise those powers. The Minister and the government are being offered a way out of the situation they created and the ETFO is urging them to make good use of this opportunity by allowing local bargaining to continue.

Hammond said Education Minister Broten and the government have a decision to make. This suspension of job action is conditional on Broten not using her power under Bill 115 to impose contracts on teachers during this period of suspended job action.

Hammond said teachers are keeping all of their options for future action open. He also said that ETFO members have voted overwhelmingly in support of carrying out a one-day political protest action if the Minister uses her power under Bill 115 to impose contracts. Elementary school teachers, he said will also carry out a mass protest action at the Ontario Liberal Party Convention along with high school teachers and school board support workers and with support from the entire labour movement.

School Board Support Workers Reject Bill 115's December 31 Deadline

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has announced that its members employed as education support workers across Ontario reject the arbitrary deadline of December 31 for negotiating collective agreements as set out in Bill 115. The announcement was made during a press conference in Toronto on December 20 by CUPE National President Paul Moist and by CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. They said 55,000 CUPE members are prepared to take job actions if the Minister of Education uses her power under Bill 115 to impose collective agreements on them after December 31.

CUPE is in negotiations with school boards for 114 separate collective agreements. These agreements cover school support staff, including educational assistants, secretaries, library technicians, administrative staff, custodians, early childhood educators, instructors, community advisory staff and food service workers. All of these workers fall under Bill 115 and the Minister of Education can impose collective agreements after December 31.

Hahn said if the government is unwilling to back off its arbitrary December 31 deadline for contract negotiations and begins imposing contracts on CUPE workers, CUPE will immediately call on school board workers to stage a one-day job action. He went on to say that one-day protests are just a starting point.

"How far this goes is up to the Liberal government," Hahn said. "If they withdraw this threat to our democratic rights, we are prepared to keep bargaining until we have agreements that are fair for everyone. If they persist in this crisis they have created, we will escalate our political protests, including more job actions, until they repeal Bill 115."

As well, Hahn said the 200,000 other Ontario public sector workers represented by CUPE are also concerned about Bill 115 and are resolved to take action in support of school staff. He explained that all public sector workers are threatened by legislation stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights. Both the Liberal government and the Hudak Conservatives have more anti-worker legislation waiting in the wings to use against other public sector workers. They see the fight of teachers and education workers against Bill 115 as their fight.

Confront Government's Stepped-Up Offensive
Against Injured Workers

On December 12, Ontario's Auditor General released his 2012 Annual Report. This report includes a review of what is called the unfunded liability of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). The WSIB "unfunded liability" is a bookkeeping fraud the government has used repeatedly to justify waves of cruel cuts to compensation for workers who have been injured on the job. This review by the auditor indicates a stepped-up offensive by the government against injured workers.

In his review of the WSIB, the auditor sets out bookkeeping changes that, with a stroke of a pen, increase the WSIB unfunded liability by another $6 billion.[1] According to the auditor, the total unfunded liability should now be calculated at $18 billion. This wildly inflated unfunded liability will be used by the government and the WSIB for even more aggressively slashing workers' compensation and impoverishing injured workers.

The WSIB is already carrying out a round of severe cuts. The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) reports that the WSIB has increased denial of accident recognition by 50 per cent; cut the average rehabilitation time from 19 to five months; reduced benefits to the permanently impaired by 29 per cent; cut permanent impairment benefits by 31 per cent and reduced payments for medical aid.

The current round of cuts was set in motion by the auditor in his 2009 Annual Report, which was full of crisis-mongering about the unfunded liability. The auditor claimed, "the growth and magnitude of the unfunded liability poses a risk to the system's financial viability." Now, according to the calculations of the auditor, the unfunded liability is even bigger and more cuts to the compensation for injured workers will have to be made.

Injured workers and the entire working class have utmost contempt for the crisis-mongering about the WSIB unfunded liability. The alleged unfunded liability crisis is a bookkeeping fraud based on the absurdity of the WSIB someday, somehow being wound up. WSIB is a "going concern" like the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The WSIB in fact has a much higher funding ratio (assets/liabilities) than the CPP but there is no talk about a crisis in the CPP.[2]

As well, the reason any liabilities are unfunded in the first place is because the government allows employers to avoid financial responsibility for compensating the workers they injure. Using the hoax that paying for the injuries they cause will make companies uncompetitive, the Harris Conservatives drastically reduced the WSIB premiums paid by employers, and the Liberal government has continued this policy. Employers cannot be let off the hook financially for the injuries to workers on the job.

Legislative Changes to Attack Injured Workers

Besides the auditor's crisis mongering about the unfunded liability as a justification for more cuts to injured workers' compensation, the government is also taking legislative measures in its offensive against injured workers.

The government issued a ministerial regulation in June 2012 on the WSIB unfunded liability which has the force of law. Under the regulation, the WSIB must reduce its unfunded liability enough to reach a funding ratio to 60 per cent by 2017 and must completely eliminate the unfunded liability by 2027. With employer premiums effectively frozen, billions more in cuts to workers' compensation will be imposed by WSIB to meet this statutory requirement.

Another law is being prepared to squeeze some of these billions from injured workers with long-term impairments. On October 22, the Minister of Labour Linda Jeffrey announced that as soon as the Legislature is reconvened she will be putting forward amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act . These amendments will eliminate the 72-month lock-in rule.

Under the 72-month rule, injured workers still unable to work after six years are no longer subject to loss-of-earnings reviews. Jeffrey's amendments will allow WSIB to continue harassing injured workers with loss-of-earning reviews even after six years. WSIB will be able to review workers with locked-in benefits and reconsider if these workers are entitled to these pensions.

The Liberal government is determined to continue on its path of denying justice for injured workers and driving workers injured on the job into poverty. The Liberals along with the Hudak Conservatives are determined to steamroller Ontario's most vulnerable workers with their austerity agenda. They must be stopped. The working class needs to prepare to confront the offensive against injured workers.

1. A bookkeeping adjustment was made to recognize a lower rate of return on WSIB investments. This resulted in a $2 billion increase in the WSIB unfunded liability in the 2011 fiscal year. The auditor also demanded that the government use new international bookkeeping methods in future years, which would increase the calculated unfunded liability by another $4 billion.
2. The funding ratio is assets as a percentage of benefits payable (assets/liabilities). The funding ratio of the WSIB is 52 per cent. The funding ratio of the CPP is much lower, at 20 per cent. The CPP is assessed on a going concern basis while the fraudulent bookkeeping of the auditor assesses the WSIB on a wind-up basis.

Broad Working Class Support for
Injured Workers' Demands

Hundreds of workers demonstrated at the Ontario Ministry of Labour offices in Toronto on December 14 to demand justice for workers injured on the job. The demonstration included workers from injured workers groups across Ontario, contingents from many other workers' organizations and other people who support just compensation for injured workers.

Similar actions have been organized by injured workers during the Christmas season for the past 21 years as a means of holding the government to account for the poverty it has inflicted on injured workers and their families. The demonstration was organized by the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG).

This year's event comes at a time when the Ontario government is aggressively implementing a cruel, unjust and illegal cost-cutting regime at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Measures are also systematically being put in place to privatize the WSIB as a for-profit insurance scheme. Injured workers, along with the entire working class are saying No! to the slashing of compensation and the move towards privatization.

Throughout the demonstration there was a militant spirit, with workers chanting, "Full Justice! No Half-Measures!"; and "No More Cap in Hand, Justice for Injured Workers!" A popular chant was "Marshall Out! Justice In!" -- a reference to WSIB CEO David Marshall who was appointed by the Liberal government to slash compensation payments to injured workers. Marshall reports to a board of directors chaired by Elizabeth Witmer, a former Minister of Labour in the Mike Harris government and the architect of that government's anti-worker changes to the workers' compensation system.

The formal part of the event started with a moment of silence for the workers killed on the job during the past year and before. The group Justice Singers then lead the crowd in singing "Feel the Power." Representatives from injured workers groups across the Greater Toronto Area and from Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Barrie and Kitchener were introduced and spoke about how the cost-cutting regime of the WSIB is resulting in the impoverishment of injured workers in their areas.

Speakers from ONIWG member organizations from across the province spoke about the immediate demands of injured workers: a full cost of living adjustment to benefits; no more deeming -- job security or full wage loss payments; no more experience rating for employers and full workers' compensation coverage for all workplaces and all workers in Ontario. They also gave details about the WSIB's cost-cutting tactics and how they drive injured workers into poverty.

The Minister of Labour Linda Jeffrey made a brief appearance to repeat the Liberal government's empty promises about just compensation. Most of the workers responded by turning their backs to Jeffrey while she was speaking.

The Minister's speech was responded to by ONIWG President Peter Page. He first said, "I should explain to the Minister that injured workers feel that this government has turned its back on injured workers. Injured workers turned their backs to the Minister in response to this." He continued, "We hear every year that the government cares about what we are doing and that we should carry on. But we shouldn't have to carry on this fight year after year. The government we elect should take care of the people of this province. Instead, the government is throwing injured workers into poverty and forgetting about us."

"Working people have become a disposable resource for employers. They take our young children, children that we have sent to school and educated. The employers use them to create profits for their businesses and when they get hurt or when they get old the employers want to get rid of them...throw them off to the side of the road. Then the employers say, 'Bring in the next group of workers that we are going to injure.' This has got to stop!"

"The government is supposed to be there for the people but it is not. Injured workers are being marginalized and impoverished like never before. We want to send a message to the Liberal government to get rid of WSIB CEO David Marshall and his ideology that workers' compensation should be privatized. Workers' compensation has to stay in the public sphere."

"As the ONIWG youth delegate Niki Nazemi said earlier, government should be by the people and for the people. Government is for us. The workers' compensation system is for us, for injured workers. It is not for private insurance companies or for employers' profits. Workers compensation is for the workers who get injured at work in this province."

Among the other people who spoke at the action was Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Hutchison. She expressed the support of OFL President Sid Ryan and all of the workers in OFL affiliated unions for the just demands of injured workers and for the demonstration. She first talked about the concern the OFL has about the rising number of women workers who are being affected by occupational health hazards and are now fighting for just compensation. She then concentrated her remarks on the legislative changes the government has proposed for eliminating the locking in of WSIB pensions after six years on claim (known as the 72-month rule). A press release by the Minister of Labour in late October said legislation to eliminate permanent pension lock-ins would be introduced when the legislature reconvenes.

Hutchison said this legislation has to be stopped, "The government has said it is going to review every pension that has been locked-in by the 72-month rule. And this is frightening because if you have a pension locked in, if this law passes the WSIB will re-open the pensions that are locked in. They will be able to reconsider if an injured worker is entitled to that pension. The WSIB must not be allowed to create a culture of fear. If this law is passed, that is what injured workers will be living in -- a world of desperation, fear and intimidation. Injured workers will be afraid that one day that phone will ring and it will be a person from the WSIB saying, 'We have revisited your pension under the 72-month rule and you will now face reductions and cuts.' We cannot let that happen...The OFL and the entire labour movement will work to ensure that this does not happen to injured workers."

Peter Tabuns, MPP for Toronto-Danforth spoke to the demonstration on behalf of the Ontario New Democratic Party. Among other things, Tabuns talked about the threat of privatization of the WSIB, "We can't' allow the privatization of workers' compensation in Ontario. We have to fight for the restoration of a system that gives injured workers a decent life and for a system that protects workers in the workplace."

Solidarity messages were given to the demonstration by representatives of the United Steel Workers (USW), Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union (UFCW).

A large delegation of USW workers attending a conference arrived at the demonstration in buses. Merv King of the United Steel Workers Injured Workers Program spoke on behalf of the USW workers. He expressed solidarity with injured workers for USW District Council and the steelworkers. "We come here every year expecting changes to the WSIB but nothing ever improves -- workers are still being bullied by the WSIB. The government doesn't hold itself to the anti-bullying legislation it passed." Merv King went on to talk about some of the personal tragedies injured workers suffer and workers who are being driven into desperation as a result of the WSIB bullying workers who apply for compensation.

Scott McIlmoyle brought solidarity greetings for the injured workers' action from CAW members across Canada. "What kind of a system is it where a worker who is injured on the job right away loses 15 per cent of their pay? It is an unfair system. What kind of a system is it that puts out consultation notices to injured workers groups, injured workers law groups and others involved in justice for injured workers and then implements changes before the consultations are even held? It is an unfair system. What kind of a system is it which now has more denials for loss of earnings, denials of health care benefits and denials of permanent impairments but on the other hand pays massive bonuses to CEO David Marshall on the backs of injured workers? We want Marshall's resignation and we want it now. Justice for Injured Workers! No more cap in hand!"

John Rae who has been a disability rights activist for 40 years spoke on behalf of the OPSEU Disability Caucus and brought the solidarity greetings of OPSEU members. He said that injured workers and others with disabilities face the same indifference from the government and are forced to live in poverty. He said, "Any progress that has been made has not been made as it should be -- as a matter of right or as a matter of justice -- but because we organized and we fought like hell to get it. And today is no different. Keep up the fight and hopefully we can do something to make the compensation system more just and one that is based on human dignity."

Sherry Backus said on behalf of the UFCW, "There is no doubt that the WSIB has taken on a much leaner and meaner attitude. Any hint of the aging process and your claim is denied. They don't look at the injury process. They are using any way they can to reduce or cut off benefits. They are clawing back benefits. Workers are under attack not only by WSIB but also by what is going on in the right-to-work states. There was a Conservative MPP on the radio in Toronto this morning who thinks right-to-work legislation is great. He says that Ontario labour legislation, including workers' compensation, is out of date. We don't need it he says. We need to take a stand. We need to fight. We need to vote. This must stop."

Labour Federation Calls for Opposition to
Liberal Legislation to Eliminate
Permanent Pensions for Injured Workers

Delegations from many labour organizations participated in the December 14 demonstration of injured workers at the Ministry of Labour offices in Toronto. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) was represented by its Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Hutchison, who also brought greetings of OFL President Sid Ryan. In the name of Ontario's unionized workers, Hutchison spoke out passionately for justice for injured workers and her speech was warmly received by the hundreds of injured workers and supporters in the demonstration.

The OFL Secretary-Treasurer began her speech by talking about the women affected by workplace injuries and hazards. She said that in her early years in the labour movement, the women she worked with on the workers' compensation file were mostly the spouses of injured workers on survivor pensions who were being trampled on by the government and living in poverty. Many of the women she talks to now though are women who are making their own claims because of exposure to hazardous materials in the workplace.

The main issue that Hutchison targeted in her speech was legislation the Liberal government has planned for attacking injured workers who have pensions locked in under the 72-month rule -- that is loss-of-earning benefits no longer subject to review by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Hutchison was referring to the October 22 announcement by the Minister of Labour that as soon as the Legislature is reconvened she will be putting forward amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act for eliminating the 72-month lock-in rule. "We cannot let that happen, sisters and brothers." she said. "The OFL and the entire labour movement will work to ensure that this does not happen to injured workers."

Hutchison laid out the effect the Liberal's proposed legislation would have on injured workers and the urgency for the labour movement to stop it from being enacted:"The government has said it is going to review every pension that has been locked in by the 72-month rule. And this is frightening because if you have a pension locked in, if this law passes the WSIB will re-open the pensions that are locked in. They will be able to reconsider if an injured worker is entitled to that pension. The WSIB must not be allowed to create a culture of fear. If this law is passed, that is what injured workers will be living in, a world of desperation, fear and intimidation. Injured workers will be afraid that one day that phone will ring and it will be a person from the WSIB saying, 'We have revisited your pension under the 72-month rule and you will now face reductions and cuts.'"

The pledge of the OFL to fight the amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act being planned by the Liberal government was enthusiastically applauded by the injured workers and their supporters.

Teachers and Education Workers Continue to Say No!

Teachers and Education Workers Continue to Say No!

Oppose Flimsy Attempts to Divert the Movement Against Bill 115

Strike Actions Receive Broad Support

Ministry of Education (Toronto)

Toronto District School Board

Durham District School Board

Halton District School Board

Peel Region District School Board

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board

Waterloo Region District School Board

Grand Erie District School Board

Lambton-Kent District School Board

Greater Essex County District School Board

Algoma District School Board

Rainbow District School Board

Rainy River District School Board

Protest at Liberal Leadership Debate in Ottawa

Elementary Teachers Call for Government to Allow Local Collective Bargaining

School Board Support Workers Reject Bill 115's December 31 Deadline

Confront Government's Stepped-Up Offensive Against Injured Workers

Legislative Changes to Attack Injured Workers

Broad Working Class Support for Injured Workers' Demands

Labour Federation Calls for Opposition to Liberal Legislation to Eliminate Permanent Pensions for Injured Workers

Oppose Flimsy Attempts to Divert
the Movement Against Bill 115

Elementary Teachers Call for Government to Allow
Local Collective Bargaining

Confront Government's Stepped-Up Offensive
Against Injured Workers

Broad Working Class Support for
Injured Workers' Demands

Labour Federation Calls for Opposition to
Liberal Legislation to Eliminate
Permanent Pensions for Injured Workers