Stand as One with Education Workers in Ontario
Why Ontarians Should Join the Political Protests Against Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act
The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) reported November 2 that "After tabling legislation designed to trample fundamental rights, Stephen Lecce told the media that the Ford government was done bargaining. It has been reported that the Ministry of Education is saying bargaining may resume if we make substantial movement and revoke the strike notice."
In response OSBCU said, "Bargaining never stopped. Our central bargaining committee is still at the table, as is the government and the Council of Trustees' Association. We hope to reach an agreement that invests in student success and ensures good jobs for workers. If a negotiated agreement that is fair for workers, students and families is not reached, strike action will proceed."
Today, in an update OSBCU stated: “This afternoon we were informed that mediation has concluded. Regardless of the attempts by your OSBCU Bargaining Committee to achieve a negotiated deal that respects the needs of workers, students & families, the Ford Conservative government would not make the necessary investments to achieve this deal. It is clear that this government never intended to negotiate. The time & effort they have spent on Bill 28, which strips away education workers' Charter rights, should have been spent on a deal that would have respected workers & ensured the services that students desperately need are secured.”
This underscores the treacherous nature of the Ford government and the essence of its Bill 28, under the misleading title Keeping Students in School Act. The bill passed the final reading in the legislature late in the afternoon of November 3 and becomes law as soon as it receives Royal Assent. Any government which can consider teachers and education workers enemies, declaring they do not want to keep students in school, deserves to be condemned. In fact, it condemns itself because it refuses to bargain in good faith and instead resorts to using its positions of power and its majority to blackmail and criminalize those who teach and look after the children and young people. The law it is passing gives it police powers against the people and shows the dangers Ontarians face going forward.
Attacking the most vulnerable section of those who work in the education sector is a despicable tactic because it relies on a dastardly belief that those who are better off will not support them or their union, in this case CUPE, and others who give the education workers union protection. This is how the attacks spearheaded by the federal government took place against the most vulnerable in the post office and also how poisonous sentiments are aroused against migrant workers, recent immigrants and refugees, claiming they are a burden on public services which should not be provided because doing so harms the majority. In this way high ideals are used to justify what cannot be justified.
Time and again, substantive issues are clouded over with divisive talk that it is all very well to support the most vulnerable workers, but "there is no money," which is false. It covers up who decides the direction of the economy and what money is spent on and who benefits from it. Instead, teachers are told that if education workers are to receive wages and working conditions according to what they say they require, it will come out of teachers' pay cheques. They are told that their unions' insistence on bargaining will disrupt the lives of teachers who are already stressed out.
These
arguments and others are crude attempts to deny that teachers and
education workers and school staff at every level are one. Along with
students, and parents and guardians for that matter, they make up a
single whole the society depends on. Government attempts to deny there
is a society
and, on the contrary, enforce the dictate that everyone should fend for
themselves, are medieval, irrational and immoral. All Ontario unions
should condemn the Ontario government and unite their members to
condemn them. All organizations of the people in every sector of the
economy and people from
all walks of life should condemn what the government in Ontario is
doing.
The workers and their union representatives have clearly declared that their protests are now political protests because the government has taken the issue outside of labour law into the political domain, the domain that concerns the entire polity. The use of the notwithstanding clause provided for by Canada's Constitution Act 1982 makes the Ford government’s claims of being democratic absurd. Invoking the exercise of police powers to force workers to submit to enslaving conditions will not do in a society which condemns authoritarian regimes abroad and parades as the great defender of democracy. Criminalizing the claims workers are within their right to make on society under the hoax that they endanger national security and the national interest is unacceptable.
OSBCU's position is courageous and righteous. It puts the lie to the Ford government's position blaming the union for the current crisis. It deserves everyone's support.
Support for the rights of education workers is support for the rights of all. All out to join the political protests against government disinformation and impunity.
Uphold the Dignity of Labour!
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 41 - Nomember
3, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520411.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca