May 15, 2014 - Vol. 3 No. 27

June 12 Election

Say No! to the Fraudulent
Austerity Agenda!

In the June 12 Election Say No! to the Fraudulent Austerity Agenda!
• Hudak's "Million Jobs" Hustle
• PCs' Deception About Apprenticeship Ratios - Jim Nugent
• Liberals' Anti-Social Budget - Dan Cerri

Justice for Injured Workers!
• Successful Picket at Ministry of Labour
• Liberals and PCs Held to Account in London
• Legal Defence Fund Established

Education Is a Right!
• Elementary Teachers Hold Forum on Standardized Testing in Windsor

June 12 Election
• Candidate and Voting Information

In the June 12 Election, Say No! to the Fraudulent Austerity Agenda!

Hudak's "Million Jobs" Hustle

Economic insecurity -- the lack of jobs that provide a Canadian-standard livelihood -- is a constant serious concern of working people in Ontario. Year after year, the number of jobs created in the economy fails to keep up with the growth of the labour force. The latest figures show that five years after the 2008-2009 recession, the unemployment rate in Ontario is stuck at more than 7 per cent, which means that almost 2 million workers have experienced some periods of unemployment in the past year and that the security of livelihood for all workers is under pressure from a flooded labour market.

For working people, the lack of jobs is an irrefutable  issue in the provincial election currently underway, but the dominant political parties are in denial or refuse to address this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Instead of using the election to engage the electorate in a discussion of the causes of economic stagnation in Ontario and solutions for it, the Liberals, Conservatives (PCs) and NDP treat voters like chumps at a carnival, offering up smoke and mirror tricks to gain partisan electoral advantage.

Among the political huckstering of these parties about jobs, PC Leader Tim Hudak's "Million Jobs Plan" stands out for its shamelessness. This alleged "plan" is nothing but a slogan, as empty as it is grand. The PCs keep deliberately vague about their plan because scrutiny of the specifics of their "Million Jobs Plan" immediately reveals it as a fraud.

This was the case during press events in the first week of the election campaign where Hudak said a PC government would create a million jobs. He explained they would do this by eliminating 100,000 public sector jobs, including those of an additional 19,000 teachers and education workers, by changing skilled trades apprenticeship regulations and by cutting the corporate income tax rate to 8 per cent. While some of these measures would redistribute existing jobs among working people, they would not create any new jobs and would further weaken the economy.

The way the PCs and the other dominant parties in Ontario address the issue of chronic mass unemployment and insecurity show that they are not capable of and not even interested in solving these problems. It is working people who suffer the effects of these problems and it is up to workers themselves to use the election as an opportunity for organizing serious discussion among broad sections of the electorate about finding a new direction for the economy. As a contribution to this discussion, Ontario Political Forum will be scrutinizing Hudak's "Million Jobs Plan" hustle.

PCs' Deception About Apprenticeship Ratios

- Jim Nugent -

In the two sessions of the Ontario Legislature preceding the current Ontario election, the PCs made a series of anti-worker, anti-union legislative proposals for driving down the working and living standard of all Ontario workers. This includes proposals attacking building trades workers and their unions.

Among the PC measures against the building trades were those that called for getting rid of regulations limiting the journeyperson-to-apprentice ratios in the trades with the aim of undermining the building trades unions' apprenticeship systems. The PCs are using the Ontario election campaign to renew these attacks on building trades workers. Undermining the building trades apprentice system has been included as part of a PC fraud about having a "million jobs plan." The PCs are claiming that by simply changing the journeyperson-apprentice ratios, they will create 200,000 of the one million promised jobs.

On the first day after the election officially began, PC Leader Tim Hudak held a photo op at a Vaughan construction site to talk about how apprenticeship ratios fit into the PC "million jobs plan." Hudak said, "They have this old rule that dates back to the 1970s that says for every single apprentice in many trades you have to have four or five journeymen, so they limit the number of opportunities. Allow each journeyman to mentor and train an apprentice, one each, and that'll help create 200,000 positions. It won't cost you a penny. One simple cabinet meeting, one stroke of the pen, and it's done."

Hudak's assertion is based on a deception: that there are 200,000 jobs in the building trades just waiting to be filled. Reality is quite the opposite: there are tens of thousands of construction workers waiting for jobs to open up, not jobs waiting for workers. The whole construction sector operates on the basis of a huge number of unemployed workers standing by for dispatch to new projects. In Ontario and in most of the country, at any given time there are six unemployed trades workers available for every job that opens up, a lower job vacancy rate than in other sectors. Hudak's proposed changes to apprenticeship regulations would redistribute existing jobs, not create any new ones.

Construction employers and construction project owners, not unemployed workers, would benefit from the PC apprenticeship system changes. They would obviously benefit from being able to hire more apprentices who have a starting pay rate 60 per cent below the journeyperson rate. But the most important benefit to employers would be the downward pressure on construction wages that would result from doubling the building trades workforce.

For historical reasons, the building trades unions have taken up the responsibility for apprenticeship training and carry out most of the successful training in Ontario. They are well known for preparing highly skilled tradespeople whose work benefits the economy and construction employers immensely. The objection that construction employers and their political representatives have about the existing apprenticeship system is that it enables the building trades unions to limit the free operation of the labour market, that is, to limit the competition among workers for jobs in the sector. The building trades unions do this by matching the number of apprentices admitted into training to the number of jobs available. This process is based on many years of experience with the ebb and flow of construction activity and on negotiations with employers.

Besides keeping construction wages at Canadian standards and from going into a free fall during periods of low construction activity, the approach of the organized building trades workers also serves apprentices who enter training. It ensures that there are enough employment postings for apprentices to complete their apprenticeship hours. Most building trades have a 90 per cent apprentice completion rate compared to 59 per cent in the non-union sector. The most common reason given by apprentices for quitting training is the long periods of unemployment between job placements.

The proposals of the Hudak PCs for changing the apprenticeship system have no potential for creating employment but they have great potential for wrecking. They could wreck one of the few effective worker training systems and damage the overall economy by pushing the construction sector into the downward spiral already being experienced by workers in other sectors. Working people should oppose the PC proposals about changing apprenticeship regulation and the entire "million jobs" hustle of the PCs. Working people should support the efforts of the building trades workers for training and bringing in the next generation of workers in a rational way that serves the workers in that sector and the overall economy.

Liberals' Anti-Social Budget

- Dan Cerri -

Finance Minister Charles Sousa tabled the budget on May 1. In much the same manner that PC Leader Tim Hudak is using the election to advance his party's version of austerity to represent the program of the rich, the budget is being described as the Liberals' plan and as Wynne's "campaign promises." A debate immediately broke out about whether it is a "progressive" budget because it contains some "positive" measures, but this is diversionary. Wynne and the Liberals will not abandon austerity and its corollary, privatization, and the budget makes this clear.

When he tabled the budget, Sousa referred to the government's continued implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services (also known as the Drummond Report). The Commission was established in 2011 by the McGuinty government and it formed the framework of the austerity budget delivered by then-Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. Under the pretext of making public services "more affordable and effective" and eliminating the deficit, all sorts of anti-social and anti-worker attacks were unleashed, including more cuts to public sector jobs and public services, especially in education and health care, concessionary compensation parameters for public employees, and new "partnerships" with private, for-profit companies. At the time, Ontario Political Forum pointed out that these were methods to privatize public assets and to justify driving down the wages and working conditions of all workers in the name of "equity."

Sousa boasted in his speech on the budget that more than 80 per cent of Drummond's recommendations are now being acted on by the Liberals, up from 60 per cent in the 2013 Budget. He said: "These actions are enabling sustainable transformation and supporting successful expenditure management. The government is continuing to implement the Commission's recommendations as part of its commitment to deliver the most effective and efficient public services."

More Austerity for Working People

This year's budget continues in the direction of the Commission's recommendations, particularly when it comes to imposing more austerity. Sousa made it clear that public services would continue to be the focal point of austerity measures over the next several years. He said: "We will continue to review expenses through a special Treasury Board subcommittee. We are introducing a new annual program review savings target of $250 million for 2014-15 and $500 million for each of the next two years. This target will focus on maintaining or enhancing the delivery of public services while reducing costs that are not essential to delivering services." The direct experience of public sector workers is that this means more attacks on their wages and working conditions.

Sousa referred specifically to how the government will impose austerity in health care by continuing to move from a guaranteed funding formula to a performance-based one. He said: "Ontario is entering the third year of a major reform of how it funds the health care sector: moving from a provider-centred global funding approach to a more person-centred, activity-based approach for hospitals, long-term care homes and Community Care Access Centres." The Liberal government has used a similar approach in its attempts to legitimize austerity that has forced public programs and services to close or be taken over by private providers.

Sousa went on to say: "Under the reform, hospital budgets will be aligned so that 30 per cent of their funding is based on the types and volume of services and treatments they deliver, at a price that reflects evidence-based best practices after factoring in the complexity of patients and procedures. Hospitals have an incentive to pay attention to how services are provided, at what cost, and to find efficiencies and improve quality, in order to be able to deliver procedures at the best-practice price."  It will be hospital workers who will bear the brunt of the continued attack on health care through increased workloads, longer hours and related issues such as physical and mental stress.

Sousa also referred to controlling compensation in the public sector, referring specifically to senior executives; but this is meant to justify demanding that all public sector workers accept retrogression in their wages and benefits. He said: "Proposed legislation would allow us to establish compensation frameworks, including the use of sector-specific hard caps. We have also introduced legislation to continue the salary freeze of Members of Provincial Parliament. This began in 2009 and would not end until the budget is balanced. We are also continuing to manage compensation and we will work with our partners to ensure that all costs are addressed within Ontario's existing fiscal framework. We are continuing to make agencies more accountable to further ensure that costs are controlled across government."

More Privatization to Pay the Rich

The budget also proposes more ways to "transform" the delivery of public services by turning them over to private interests in the name of "efficiencies." According to Sousa, "Ontario will continue to implement and, in some cases, accelerate transformational initiatives that have generated increased efficiency and effectiveness. The government will maintain momentum as it moves forward to transform public services by changing the way programs and services are delivered, to ensure results and better value for money." This is code for more public-private partnerships (P3s) to deliver government programs. Increasing the number of P3s is something former Finance Minister Dwight Duncan made clear as Co-Chair of an Ontario Chamber of Commerce-KPMG-Maximus Canada advisory panel that recently released a report titled "Unlocking the Public Service Economy in Ontario: A New Approach to Public-Private Partnership in Services." Referring to what he called a "staggering" debt load and the need to look for lower cost ways to deliver services, Duncan said regardless of who forms the government, they would be compelled to look at these types of things in the not too distant future.

The budget proposes ways to form more P3s including through Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP), which the government describes as a made-in-Ontario P3 model to deliver infrastructure projects. The budget also follows up on the government's previous announcement of "unlocking value from government assets," including by selling Ontario's shares in General Motors, certain government-owned real estate holdings and possibly also Crown corporations such as Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Referring to the latter, Sousa said: "That doesn't necessarily mean we will sell them. Unlocking the full value of these assets will include improving efficiency and enhancing their performance." Sousa also said the government would review other ways to maximize efficiencies of public assets. He referred to using "expert panels" for this, including one already established to review public assets, led by the retiring President and CEO of TD Bank Group, Ed Clark.

The budget gives a clear indication of the direction the Liberals are proposing for Ontario which is much the same as the one followed in McGuinty and Duncan's days. It is more austerity for the working people at the same time as the Liberals show a willingness to spend on projects linked with private interests to deliver public services.

Justice for Injured Workers!

Successful Picket at Ministry of Labour

At noon on Friday, May 9, the first of three information pickets at the Ministry of Labour organized by the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) was attended by Toronto injured workers groups and a delegation of Steelworkers and members of the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union.

The aim of these pickets is to oppose the benefit cuts being pushed by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) through its Draft Benefits Policy Review. The pickets are to inform the public of the recent decisions of the WSIB to cut or eliminate compensation benefits based on "pre-existing conditions" and age.

Upon arriving, the organizers were told for the first time in 20 years that they could not stand at the top of the stairs of the building housing the Ministry of Labour for their pickets anymore. Not that having to hold pickets for two decades to demand rights isn't a travesty in itself!

Karl Crevar, a past executive member of ONIWIG, said that these pickets are an expression of injured workers standing up for their rights. He said: "I find this outrageous and appalling...one thing this management forgets is that the offices the Ministry of Labour rents out here come out of our taxpayers' dollars...yet we are being told that we cannot stand up on those steps to address our people here and to inform the general public what is going on. This is just another way of blocking out the issues of the injured workers and the families of this province."

Crevar explained that this picket is the beginning of weekly pickets leading up to Injured Workers Day, June 1.

Among the speakers was Peter Page, past President of ONIWG, who explained that the seriousness of the direction WSIB is taking the compensation system and the effects on injured workers and all workers in Ontario have led to the launching of a legal defence fund.

The sentiment of the picketers was reflected in the slogans "No justice, no peace", "No more cap in hand", "Justice for injured workers", "Fire [WSIB President I. David] Marshall, hire injured workers".

The information pickets will continue next Friday May 16 and May 23 and culminate in the overnight vigil at Queen's Park on Saturday May 31 and June 1, Injured Workers Day.

The participants affirmed they would ensure that injured workers' fight for justice is raised throughout the election.

Liberals and PCs Held to Account in London

Activists for injured workers are holding Liberal incumbent and Minister of Health, Deb Matthews to account in the riding of London Centre. On May 6, the day before the election writ was dropped, they held a spirited pre-election picket outside Matthews' constituency office to oppose the Liberals' and PCs' attacks on injured workers and the health care system. In addition, the activists smashed the silence on the conditions facing injured workers at May First actions in London and showed solidarity with public servants at actions held in the city on April 30. The activists point out that they are determined to not let the Liberals or the PCs off the hook during the elections for their mistreatment of injured workers.

Legal Defence Fund Established

In response to the latest attacks on the right of injured workers to their benefits and the systematic dismantling of the 100-year-old public compensation system, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) is setting up a legal defence fund to enable it to launch legal challenges against the WSIB and the government. The establishment of the fund was announced at the May 9 picket at the Ministry of Labour in Toronto. Peter Page, past President of ONIWG who is spearheading the initiative, also issued a letter explaining the problems they are addressing.

In the letter, Page states: "Over the last twenty years government has been cutting benefits to injured workers, changing policy in an effort to address the unfunded liability of the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) -- which only became a problem after the Mike Harris Conservatives froze employer premium rates. Currently under the direction of I. David Marshall, President of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and Elizabeth Witmer the Chair of the WSIB we have seen unprecedented attacks upon injured worker's benefits, frankly we feel they are going against injured workers human rights under the current Compensation Act. The policy changes are aimed at worker benefits pure and simple. This has to stop!"

Page continues: "Our system should remain within the public realm and at arm's length from government. Each new government has made legislative changes to our Workers' Compensation System, all to the detriment of the workers injured on the job. Many injured workers now rely on welfare as their source of income or CPP disability as the WSIB has denied them their benefits or deemed them capable of returning to the workforce regardless of their actual medical condition that prevents them from doing so.

"If some policies now being proposed by the government through its policy review are implemented injured workers' work-related disabilities will be systematically blamed on 'pre-existing conditions' including undiagnosed and asymptomatic conditions. The definition of 'pre-existing conditions' is so broad that it includes factors that are simply a part of normal aging." Page states that "[t]his approach is fundamentally wrong. If a worker is injured at work, she or he should be compensated for any resulting disability, even if that worker is older or more vulnerable to disability for other reasons."

Page points out that the arrangement with injured workers when the compensation system was established was that workers gave up their right to sue the companies that employed them in exchange for fair and timely compensation through a public program paid for by the employers.

ONIWG is calling on all injured workers, trade unions, legal clinics and like-minded activists to assist them in raising money for the Legal Defence Fund which will be used to take collective legal action through means such as class action suits or charter challenges against the violations of injured workers' rights. As well as putting together the funds to take legal action ONIWG is asking injured workers to send in their experiences with cuts to and denials of benefits by the WSIB so they can better assess what has been taking place over the recent period and how best to defend injured workers' rights within this situation.

Cheques should be made out to the ONIWG Legal Defence Fund and sent to the following address:

ONIWG Legal Defence Fund
203 - 620 Concession Street
Hamilton, ON
L8V 1B6

Education Is a Right!

Elementary Teachers Hold Forum
on Standardized Testing in Windsor

Sam Hammond, President of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario opens Windsor forum
on standardized testing, May 14, 2014.

On May 14 the Greater Essex Elementary Teachers' Federation held a forum on the provincial standardized test known as the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) test at the Ciociaro Club in Windsor. The poster for the forum stated: "Time to Evaluate EQAO: is standardized testing working?" The forum was an opportunity for teachers and education workers and all those concerned to discuss the EQAO tests and bring forward their experience.

Andrew Campbell, a Grade 5 teacher with the Grand Erie District School Board who has blogged and presented on the topic of the EQAO test, gave the keynote address. This was followed by a very lively discussion, where education workers present gave their own direct experiences with the test and the damage it is causing to the youth and public education. From many perspectives the discussion showed the importance of people having their own forums to discuss the problems in their fields in order that real solutions can emerge from those directly involved, rather than imposed from above in an arbitrary manner.

The Education Quality and Accountability Office tests all students in the province four times -- in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. These tests were established in 1996 under the Harris PC regime and have continued under the Liberals. The EQAO tests were introduced in the name of accountability at the same time as large cuts to education funding were imposed. When they were put in place, the EQAO tests faced broad opposition from teachers and education workers based on the fact that they were being used to justify funding cuts in education and attacks on teachers and education workers -- all in the name of accountability -- while the government was totally unaccountable.

Not only have the Liberals carried on using the mechanism of EQAO testing despite it requiring a massive use of funds that could be put back into the system and used to increase the quality of education by hiring teachers, lowering class sizes, etc. but they have used the results for self-promotion when scores are high and as a weapon to attack schools, boards and teachers when scores are low.

June 12 Election

Candidate and Voting Information

Elections Ontario has announced that the candidate nomination period for the election begins Thursday, May 15, 2014 and ends at 2 pm on Thursday, May 22, 2014. Information sessions are being held at Returning Offices for all candidates.

Eligible voters should receive their voter registration card by mail. It includes information on voting locations. An eligible elector requires a piece of identification along with the registration card at their voting location. All locations for voting on June 12 will be posted to the website.

Advance Polls for those who wish to vote before June 12 will be held from Saturday, May 31, 2014 to Friday, June 6, 2014 from 10 am to 8 pm. Locations for Advance Polls will also be listed on the website.

Locations Returning Offices are available on the website and have pertinent information for eligible voters, candidates and anyone interested in working during the election for Elections Ontario.

Special Ballots are also available now for eligible electors who cannot or wish to not vote at an Advanced Poll or on voting day. They can do so in person at the local Returning Office or satellite office, up to the day before election day at 6:00 pm or by mail. Electors must apply for their special ballot voting kit no later than 6 pm on Friday, June 6, 2014. Applications are available on the website, by phone or at local Returning Offices.

For more information visit wemakevotingeasy.ca.

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