November 12, 2012 - Vol. 2 No. 8

Build the Independent Politics of the Working Class

Resist Attempts to Sideline
Workers' Organized Opposition!
Step Up the Work to Repeal the Putting Students First Act and Defeat the Austerity Agenda!

Build the Independent Politics of the Working Class
• Resist Attempts to Sideline Workers' Organized Opposition! Step Up the Work to Repeal the Putting Students First Act and Defeat the Austerity Agenda!
• Teachers and Education Workers Begin Strike Actions
• Workers Say "No to Austerity!"

Significance of McGuinty's Prorogation of the Legislature
• Oppose Liberals' Use of Prorogation to Silence Workers' Opposition - Dan Cerri
• McGuinty's Phony Pitch to Building Trades - Jim Nugent
• Update on Liberal Leadership Race - Christine Nugent

Upcoming Actions Against Bill 115
• Opposition to Putting Students First Act Continues

Build the Independent Politics of the Working Class

Resist Attempts to Sideline
Workers' Organized Opposition!
Step Up the Work to Repeal the Putting Students First Act and Defeat the Austerity Agenda!

Since the time the McGuinty Liberals introduced Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act -- passed in the Legislature with the support of the Progressive Conservatives -- it has been used as a template for the implementation of the government's illegitimate neo-liberal "austerity agenda." Premier McGuinty, Finance Minister Duncan, Education Minister Broten and other cabinet ministers have argued that contracts within the public sector must resemble this template to tackle the deficit. The Liberals had hoped that by pitting students and families against teachers -- an incitement expressed in the name of the Act itself -- there would be a step-by-step implementation of their "austerity" template across the public sector without question.

The McGuinty government's attempt to use what it supposed was public dislike for teachers as the focal point to implement the austerity agenda among public sector workers has proved to be a miscalculation. Instead, support for the teachers and education workers and resistance to Bill 115 have become the focal point for widespread opposition among the people to the austerity agenda of the rich. This widespread opposition is reflected in the defeat of the austerity agenda in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election and mounting support for the resistance by teachers, education workers and others. It has activated people and given them a converging point to defend their rights. It has given them confidence that they can organize their own opposition to the austerity agenda. Despite this, the government still clings to the hope that it can deactivate workers' organized opposition by appealing to those who they think have the same narrow interests as they have. This too will fail.

Public sentiment is against the anti-social agenda and thus for the repeal of the Putting Students First Act. This means that anything short of resolving the crisis in a manner which favours the teachers and education workers and stops destroying the system of public education will not convince people about the justice of the government's cause. A mere "review" of the Putting Students First Act won't do. Bill 115 is part of arrangements the rich need to put the state at the disposal of handing over to them any remaining public assets. This agenda which the rich themselves have dubbed the austerity agenda  adversely affects the working people. It also means that people are opposed to any negotiations which accept the basic premise of the Act which is that rights can be taken away in the name of austerity.  Teachers and education workers oppose being sidelined and treated with contempt.

Stand with Teachers and Education Workers! Repeal Bill 115!

Teachers and Education Workers Begin Strike Actions

In the early morning hours today, November 12, the two-month anniversary of the passage of Bill 115, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) announced that its members are beginning strike actions after talks with the provincial government ended without an agreement. OSSTF had postponed strike actions until today when it announced on November 6 that talks with the government were taking place. In its news release, OSSTF reports that it had made the offer to continue talks in an effort to reach an acceptable agreement and is open to further discussions at both the provincial and local levels, however, no further talks are scheduled at this time.

Ontario Political Forum encourages its readers to support the just stand of the teachers and education workers to defend their rights against government dictate. Actions on the two-month anniversary of the passage of Bill 115 are taking place across the province today and everyone is encouraged to attend. (See upcoming events below.)

OSSTF members in the following school boards will commence strike action as of November 12:

- Bluewater District School Board (Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board (Early Childhood Educators, Educational Support Staff, Maintenance and Cleaners)

- Durham District School Board (Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Greater Essex County District School Board (Educational Support Staff, Professional Student Services Personnel, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Halton District School Board (Office/Clerical/Technical, Professional Student Services Personnel, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board (Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Lakehead District School Board (Early Childhood Educators, Educational Assistants, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Limestone District School Board (Teachers, Occasional Teachers and Professional Student Services Personnel)

- Niagara District School Board (Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (Early Childhood Educators, Educational Assistants, Office/Clerical/Technical, Plant Support Staff, Teachers, Occasional Teachers and Professional Student Services Personnel)

- Renfrew District School Board (Early Childhood Educators, Office Managers, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Superior Greenstone District School Board (Educational Support Staff, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board (Educational Assistants and Professional Student Services Personnel)

- Toronto District School Board (Teachers)

- Trillium Lakelands District School Board (Professional Student Services Personnel, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Upper Canada District School Board (Professional Student Services Personnel, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Upper Grand District School Board (Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, Office/Clerical/Technical, Professional Student Services Personnel, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Waterloo Region District School Board (Educational Support Staff, Professional Student Services Personnel, Supervision Monitors/Cafeteria Assistants, Teachers and Occasional Teachers)

- Wellington Catholic District School Board (Early Childhood Educators, Educational Support Staff, Office/Clerical/Technical, Professional Student Services Personnel)

A full listing of the actions for teachers can be found by clicking here and for support staff by clicking here.

OSSTF has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.

Workers Say "No to Austerity!"

Workers across Ontario are taking measures to oppose the government's attacks on workers. On November 1, a militant rally was held at the Beamsville constituency office of Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. Some 100 steelworkers, teachers, public sector workers, building trades workers and members of community organizations emphatically rejected the bogus "austerity agenda" promoted by the McGuinty Liberals and the Hudak Conservatives as a means to pay the rich at the workers' expense. In particular, Hudak published a White Paper entitled "Paths to Prosperity," which has been studied and exposed by some of the workers who were present at the rally as a call to drastically reduce workers' standard of living and restrict their rights.

Speakers at the rally included Lisa Hammond, President of the Hamilton-Wentworth Elementary Teachers' Local; Chantel Mancini, President of District 21 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation; Irwin Nanda, Executive Vice-President of the Ontario Federation of Labour; Mitch Sinclair, Business Representative of Local 1007 of the Millwrights Regional Council of Ontario; Margie Goold and Ursula Samuels from the Campaign for Adequate Welfare and Disability Benefits; Mary Long, President of the Hamilton and District Labour Council; Rolf Gerstenberger, President of Local 1005 USW; and Jake Lombardo, Chair of Local 1005's Political Action Committee.

Significance of McGuinty's Prorogation of the Legislature

Oppose Liberals' Use of Prorogation to
Silence Workers' Opposition

- Dan Cerri -

The Liberals are using prorogation of the Legislature to give them time to elect a new leader that they hope will be more successful in imposing the austerity agenda which McGuinty has obviously had difficulty in doing. They must do so in the face of a challenge by the Progressive Conservatives to become the governing party for the rich.

Prorogation is also being used to silence and diffuse the widespread resistance that the attacks on education workers aroused. The Liberals would very much like to deactivate workers' opposition and stabilize the political situation in a way that serves their partisan political calculations. The idea is being floated that workers and their organizations should wait for the election of a new Liberal Party leader to negotiate contracts. The threat of a Hudak PC government is being used to justify this idea even though both parties have revealed their determination to push through the austerity agenda.

Ontarians know however that this agenda serves only the privileged minority. Workers must continue to take up their own independent analysis of the situation and discuss what actions should be taken to ensure Bill 115 is opposed or rendered ineffective. The work to get the bill repealed deserves to be vigorously supported.

McGuinty's Phony Pitch to Building Trades

- Jim Nugent -

On October 19, three days after resigning as Premier and proroguing the Legislature, Dalton McGuinty showed up at the annual convention of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario. The provincial council is the central council for building trades unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organizations, that represent 150,000 Ontario building trades workers. McGuinty went to the convention to make a phony pitch that his Liberal government has been and still is a friend of the building trades.

McGuinty's main pitch was jobs. He said his government has invested $75 billion in infrastructure since being elected, including $13 billion in the past year. He claimed this infrastructure spending had maintained employment for 100,000 construction workers throughout the period. McGuinty addressed himself to construction workers in a way that suggests construction workers have no other interest than having a job today and have no awareness or interest in what happens tomorrow to those jobs, to the overall economy or to the society.

A lot of questions about jobs and infrastructure went unanswered in his speech. Are these infrastructure projects being built in a way that strengthens the economy in an all-round way? How much has the economy been weakened by the billions of dollars sucked out of the economy by international construction-financing monopolies? How does disappearing money into the global financial system ensure a bright future? What about the industrial construction sector? How many thousands of good long-term jobs in industrial construction/maintenance have been lost because of the wrecking of manufacturing in Ontario during McGuinty's watch?

Since the Liberal Party won the election nine years ago with a claim to be more balanced than the Harris Conservatives, the McGuinty government has singled out construction workers as suckers for its "friend of the building trades" lip service. A delegate of the building trades was appointed to the Board of Directors of Infrastructure Ontario, the Ontario Government's construction funding agency. The Liberals' single reversal of Harris era anti-worker labour legislation involved the building trades -- reinstating card-based certification for construction unions. But have these measures amounted to anything more than tokenism? What is the situation for the building trades now compared to when McGuinty came to power?

The Harris gang only dreamed about what the McGuinty government has accomplished in undermining the security and livelihoods of building trades workers and weakening the position of their unions. Having a director's seat on Infrastructure Ontario did not stop Infrastructure Ontario along with the government agency Metrolinx from pushing large scale anti-union contracting into the institutional construction sector. Having card-based certification did not stop work from bleeding to the anti-union contractors. Anti-union contractors have flourished under the McGuinty government and have been linking-up with big international monopolies to gobble up bigger and bigger jobs.

See how the anti-union Merit Ontario Contractors Association reports on the Ontario situation in the 2012 edition of Merit Canada's annual magazine Open Mind:

"Merit contractors have achieved major breakthroughs in tendering for infrastructure projects in the Toronto area. Merit Ontario has made huge strides in our efforts to ensure that our members have equal opportunities in Toronto's expanding public transit system. We were successful in having Metrolinx reverse its union-only tender policy and they are now completely open."

Metrolinx is so "open" in fact that Kenaidan Contracting, a driving force behind Merit Ontario, along with its giant Japanese owner Obayashi, is now Metrolinx's preferred contractor. Metrolinx awarded Kenaidan-Obayashi a $323 million contract for the Toronto light rail transit project, the only contract awarded so far on this $8.4 billion project. This contract award also overthrows the longstanding City of Toronto and TTC fair wage policy on transit construction and kills the City of Toronto plan for a project labour agreement on the light rail transit projects with the building trades.

Deeds speak. The McGuinty government's actions expose its "friend of the building trades" pitch as phony political posturing.

Update on Liberal Leadership Race

- Christine Nugent -

Candidates for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party have begun to declare themselves. All potential candidates must submit their names to the party by November 23. The fee to enter is $50,000 and candidates can spend up to $500,000 on their campaign. Each must obtain 250 signatures from party members in good standing. The party will elect its new leader at a convention at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto January 25-27, 2013. A further condition on sitting cabinet ministers is that they resign their posts in order to run.

MPP Glen Murray Announces Candidacy

On November 3, Minister Glen Murray, Toronto Centre MPP and Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities resigned his post as cabinet minister and announced the next day that he is seeking the position of leader of the Liberal Party.

"The winner of this race will be the premier of a minority government with an opposition set to force an election," he said. "This race is about picking someone who has a clear agenda and a premier who is ready if forced to take the Liberals into election and win another mandate."

Murray was the mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. One of his initiatives during his mayoralty was to hand over the construction of public housing to private interests. Murray also worked with local millionaires and the Harper government for its spurious project the New Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a project for opposing human rights.[1]

Murray resigned as mayor to run for the federal Liberals in the 2004 federal election in the Winnipeg riding of Charleswood-St. James, losing to a Conservative. Following his defeat he became a visiting fellow at Massey College in Toronto. In 2007, he became the President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute, a think tank that promotes private-public partnerships for urban infrastructure and services. In a 2010 by-election, the Liberal Party handed Murray the safe seat of Toronto Centre when George Smitherman resigned to run for Mayor of Toronto. He won his first seat in the Ontario Legislature in that by-election.

Media reports state that Murray considers himself scandal free. In announcing his leadership campaign he used words like "reset" and "renew." He spoke, without much detail, of a five-point plan which includes tax cuts for small businesses, up to $500 in tax rebates for middle-income families and a tuition fee program that would free college and post-secondary students from having to place deposits of thousands of dollars before starting their studies. He proposed to turn current tax deductions into grants and promote greater productivity in government through increased use of technology.

Present at his campaign launch was former Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie and Toronto mayoral candidate and former provincial Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman.

According to a statement by Murray, John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre, will replace Murray as Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. Milloy is presently Minister of Community and Social Services and Government House Leader.

MPP Kathleen Wynne Announces Candidacy
Amidst Education Workers' Protest

MPP Kathleen Wynne has resigned her post as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Aboriginal Affairs to run as a candidate for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party. She launched her campaign Monday, November 5 with a media event in her Don Valley West riding. Don Valley West is home to many of Canada's richest families.

Teachers and education workers demonstrated at Wynne's November 5 media event. They demanded that she take a stand for the repeal of Bill 115. Their placards said: "Kathleen Wynne Take a Stand! Bill 115 Must be Banned!" and " How can you put students first when you put teachers last!" The protest extended inside the venue where they were ejected by Wynne's campaign workers.

Inside the event, Wynne claimed she will work to rebuild the Liberals' relationship with teachers. Wynne said she must stay the economic course to pay down the deficit by 2017-18, but that this doesn't just mean cuts.

Wynne, a former school trustee, has held several posts related to education. She was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2003 and served as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Education and in 2006 she was promoted to Minister of Education. In January 2010, she became Minister of Transportation. In 2011 she was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, posts which she held when the Attawapiskat housing crisis came to public attention and which remains unresolved.

Wynne blames the Liberal government's attack on teachers for their third place finish in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election and claims to be uncomfortable with the prorogation of the Legislature. Wynne had no such qualms before the opportunity of the leadership race presented itself. Minister Wynne vigorously defended her government's Bill 115 during the debate on the legislation. She said collective bargaining through negotiation "is our first choice" but then went on to justify a government dictated contract.[2]

Since announcing her candidacy, Wynne has been trying to disguise her support for Bill 115. In a November 6 interview on CBC Radio's local Toronto morning show, Wynne did everything she could to dodge the question of whether she would repeal Bill 115 if she became the Liberal leader/Premier. After a lengthy response, politely described by the interviewer as a "non-answer," Wynne eventually replied that "the legislation is in place," meaning she has no intention to repeal it.

Due to Kathleen Wynne's resignation, Bob Chiarelli, currently Minister of Transportation and Minister of Infrastructure, will also take on the Municipal Affairs and Housing portfolio and Energy Minister Chris Bentley will takeover Aboriginal Affairs.

Sandra Pupatello Joins Liberal Leadership Race

On Thursday, November 8 , former MPP Sandra Pupatello announced she will seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party. After making her announcement in Toronto in the morning, Pupatello hoped for a warm welcome in Windsor, however this was not to be. Members of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary Teachers' Federation, along with Essex MPP Taras Natyshak, rallied outside the event calling for the repeal of Bill 115. The protest moved right to the doors outside the hall where Pupatello was speaking with loud yells of "Kill Bill 115."

Pupatello was appointed to Cabinet in 2003. She has served as Minister of Community and Social Services (2003-2006), Minister Responsible for Women's Issues (2003-2007), Minister of Education (April-September 2006), Minister of Economic Development and Trade (2006-2007), Minister of International Trade and Investment (2008-2009) and Minister of Economic Development and Trade (2009-2011).

In 2005, in her capacity as Minister Responsible for Women's Issues, she attempted to present a speech at a conference organized to deal with violence against women but was confronted by many women at the conference who opposed her balancing act of opposing violence against women while waging the anti-social offensive against them. Earlier that year, the Ministry of Community and Social Services under her leadership had rolled out a series of amendments to restrict access to the Special Diet Allowance to recipients of Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Women exposed this hypocrisy demanding that those most vulnerable in society be provided a livelihood as a right. Her interference in the disbursement of these funds led to hundreds of people launching complaints with the Human Rights Tribunal asserting that the amendments violated the Human Rights Code. Since then, her Liberal Party has only escalated attacks on the poor.

Pupatello took her MPP's severance package just prior to the 2011 provincial election choosing to join the private sector at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as Director of Business Development and Global Markets assisting the very monopolies and privileged minority served by the Liberal Party.

PwC reports state that "she assists businesses interested in international investment in Canada, particularly from China, India, Brazil and the Middle East; Canadian outbound investment globally; and infrastructure investment and public-private partnerships."

On the national level, in February of this year, just six months after joining PWC, Pupatello was granted a position by the Harper government on Industry Canada's Review of the Aerospace and Space Programs and Policies. The review is to make recommendation on how federal policies and programs can help maximize the competitiveness of Canada's aerospace and space sectors.

Dwight Duncan says he will support his "friend and colleague." Both have represented ridings in Windsor and are part of the Liberal party machine there.

MPP Charles Sousa Enters Leadership Race

On Saturday, November 10, Charles Sousa, MPP for Mississauga South, announced his entry into the Liberal Party leadership race. The day before, Sousa had resigned his posts as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Minister Responsible for the 2015 Pan and Para Pan American Games.

Sousa co-chaired former PC Leader John Tory's campaign for Mayor of Toronto in 2006 as part of the group "Grits for Tory." He was elected as an MPP in 2007.

In 2008, Sousa held the position of Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development. In this role he championed the passage of Open for Business legislation. Under such neo-liberal policies that cater to the monopolies' whims, the destruction of manufacturing and forestry jobs has taken place across the province.

Sousa was Minister of Labour from 2010 to 2011 following Peter Fonseca's resignation to seek federal office. Between them, Fonseca and Sousa were responsible for the Ontario government's review of its Workplace Safety System in the wake of four migrant construction workers being killed and one seriously injured on the job in December 2009 while doing repair work on a swing stage outside a Toronto highrise. The Government of Ontario and the Ministry of Labour never accepted responsibility for these deaths and injuries, despite the Ministry being fully aware of the contractor's ongoing negligence. The Ministry made nine worksite visits between October 20 and December 17, 2009 and found eight conditions not in compliance with safety regulations -- including violations of swing stage safety.

Before entering government, Sousa worked at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Financial Group for more than 20 years. Among his roles was Director of Business Development-Commercial Financial Services, Director of Government & Community Affairs and Senior Manager of Marketing at RBC Dominion Securities' head office. Prior to working with RBC, he owned and operated a company that offered financial services to small businesses.

The focus of Sousa's announcement was to take Ontario in a "new direction" and the promise of jobs. At the same time he claimed that his government had created "great amounts of jobs." He also said that "unemployment is still at 8.3 per cent and youth unemployment is at 17.7 per cent. That's too high."

While committing to balancing the budget by 2017, he announced support for the auto, mining and pharmaceutical monopolies.

While Ontario workers are demanding that governments stop paying the rich, increase funding for social programs and defend public services, Sousa instead proposes the increasingly discredited pay-the-rich scheme of private-public partnerships, to "partner with the private sector to find innovative financing solutions that get the job done and protect the tax payer."

Since the passage of Bill 115, there have been hundreds of teachers and education workers protesting at his office demanding the repeal of the bill. He has only said that perhaps the bill goes too far against English as a second language and adult education workers because they are what he called "the poor cousins" in the education system. Not even this much was said on the matter in his announcement on Saturday.

Others

Media reports state that both Dr. Eric Hoskins and Gerrard Kennedy may announce their candidacies this week.

Hoskins, MPP for St. Paul's, resigned as Minister of Children and Youth Services and handed over this portfolio to Minister of Education Laurel Broten. He says he wanted to be part of his party's "renewal." Hoskins was elected in a September 2009 by-election at which time he was named the Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. He is the former president of War Child Canada.

In the 2008 federal election, Hoskins ran as the federal Liberal candidate in the riding of Haldimand-Norfolk and came second to Conservative candidate Diane Finley.

Gerrard Kennedy was MPP for York South from 1996-1999 and Parkdale-High Park from 1999-2006 and 2008-2011. He was Minister of Education from 2003-2006. In 2006, he resigned his seat to seek the federal Liberal Party's leadership.

Notes

1. For an explanation of this project see TML Weekly, December 10, 2011 - No. 20,"International Human Rights Day: Hidden Aims of the Harper Dictatorship's Canadian Museum of Human Rights."
2. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60bWU8bHiNc&feature=plcp.

(With files from Wikipedia, canurb.com, glenmurray.onmpp.ca, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, youtube.com, aerospacereview.ca, pwc.com)

Upcoming Actions Against Bill 115

Opposition to Putting Students First Act Continues

November 12 marks the two-month anniversary of the passing of Bill 115. Teachers and education workers actions continue to grow, spreading to small towns across the province and targetting MPPs' constituency offices or government offices. All out to support the just demand of teachers and education workers for the repeal of Bill 115!

(Click image to enlarge)

2570 Dougall Avenue, Windsor

Windsor Forum to Repeal Bill 115
Tuesday, Novemeber 20 -- 7:00-10:00 pm
Caboto Club, 2175 Parent Ave.
Organized by: Teachers for Global Awareness
For information: socialjustice@govital.net


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