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October 27, 2016
Steelworkers Oppose Restructuring
in
the Service of Narrow Private Interests
Damage Caused by Inter-Monopoly
Dogfight and Its Airing of Dirty Linen
- K.C. Adams -
PDF
Steelworkers
Oppose
Restructuring
in
the
Service
of
Narrow
Private
Interests
• Damage Caused by Inter-Monopoly Dogfight and
Its Airing of Dirty Linen
- K.C. Adams
• Inter-Monopoly Fight Continues in the Steel
Sector
Fort McMurray Workers
Demand Their Rights
• Fighting to Rebuild After Devastating Forest
Fire - Marie Thibault
Workers Demand Audit
of Canadian Food Inspection Agency Resources
• Need to Defend Food Safety of Canadians
- Pierre Chénier
Teachers, Students,
Parents and Allies Continue to Fight for Their Schools
• BC Liberal Government Fires Vancouver School
Board - Anne Jamieson
Steelworkers Oppose Restructuring in the
Service of Narrow Private Interests
Damage Caused by Inter-Monopoly Dogfight
and Its Airing of Dirty Linen
- K.C. Adams -
Canadians must step up the organized
fight to gain control of their
basic economy from the global monopolies
Essar Global Fund put its subsidiary Essar Steel Algoma
into
bankruptcy protection of the federal Companies'
Creditors
Arrangement
Act (CCAA) in November 2015. The monopoly said its
subsidiary could not
pay its bills or meet its social obligations to workers and retirees,
and that the U.S. company Cliffs Natural Resources was
refusing to supply iron ore to the mill as contracted. Essar Global
contends that a dispute with Cliffs in Minnesota motivated Cliffs to
stop supplying Algoma Steel with iron ore.
Prior to putting Essar Steel Algoma into CCAA, Essar
Global
siphoned off the Port of Algoma and the mill's co-generation plant and
brought them under its separate control. Some suggest that this was in
preparation for the CCAA, as control of the two entities outside CCAA
would position the parent company to exercise control of the
situation. The port especially has to function for the mill to produce
normally.
Essar Global Fund expanded rapidly prior to
the 2008 economic
crisis mainly through borrowing. The collapse of prices for the
commodities it sells and a downturn in steel consumption has put the
global monopoly under severe pressure from its creditors. Those
creditors and others smell blood and have pounced on the many assets of
Essar Global that are vulnerable including Essar Steel Algoma. Essar
Global appears to have hoped that control of the Port of Algoma would
be its trump card in keeping control of the Algoma mill after entering
the CCAA process. The CCAA monitor in the case, Ernst & Young, and
the main Debtor-In-Possession (DIP), Deutsche Bank, are now
directly attacking Essar Global's control of the port to weaken its
position within the CCAA process.
Essar Global alleges that Ernst & Young and
Deutsche Bank,
which holds a $200 million DIP, have conspired to seize control of
the
Essar Steel Algoma CCAA and force Essar Global out of the picture.
Anshumali Dwivedi, chief executive officer of the Port of Algoma, a
business separately owned by Essar Global since 2014,
alleges a conspiracy is attempting to undermine the credibility of
Essar Global and its financial stability.
In a recent interview with the Sault Star,
"Dwivedi said
he's ‘extremely disappointed' with a Toronto judge's [Judge Newbould's]
decision released earlier this month that rules Essar Steel Algoma did
not have to pay the Port of Algoma its fees under their previously
agreed upon Cargo Handling Agreement." CCAA Judge J.
Newbould also authorized the monitor Ernst & Young to commence an
oppression proceeding in relation to the separation of the Port of
Algoma from Essar Steel Algoma in 2014 to ascertain whether it was
"fair and equitable."[1]
Dwivedi said he found the ruling "alarming" and not
consistent with
the facts. In the interview he alleges, "The judge is being fed
selective information by certain parties who want to steer him in a
certain direction. I'm the lone voice being drowned out by the DIP
(Debtor-in-Possession) lenders and the monitor and others."
Dwivedi said in the interview that the Port of Algoma
has the
continued support of its parent company Essar Global, which is able to
provide it with equity. He has plans to expand the port using in part
public funds from the Trudeau government's New Building Canada Fund --
Natural Infrastructure Component. Dwivedi was recently seen in
the city with Trudeau's Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic
Development. "The application is ready to go when Algoma's CCAA process
is done, but in the meantime we are continuing to keep the ball
rolling," he said. His company wants the federal funding program to
pay 25 per cent of the estimated $147.5 million
expansion project with matching public funds from the provincial
government.
The allegations in the oppression motion against Essar
Global Fund
are similar to allegations that U.S. Steel diverted customers away from
its Canadian subsidiary, the former Stelco, to weaken it deliberately;
that it overcharged for commodities transferred to its Canadian mills
from its internally owned companies, and otherwise manipulated
the accounting books to turn its equity investment into a loan. In the
USS case, no oppression motion has been allowed even though the
evidence against it is said to be compelling.
Canadians generally should be alarmed that their economy
is subject
to this kind of infighting and manipulation by global monopolies. Not
only do these allegations suggest a pattern of abuse to serve the
narrow private interests of global monopolies using the value Canadian
workers produce but that monopoly contention for control leads to
direct attacks on workers and demands for concessions, wrecking of the
particular facility and economy generally, and senseless loss of value
in court fees and other charges.
The value workers produce should as first priority be
used to
ensure the well-being of the workers themselves and their communities,
and the extended reproduction of the particular facility and its
capacity to assist the economy generally in a cooperative manner.
Canadians have to step up their fight for control of their basic
economy and to
restrict this wrecking behaviour of the global monopolies. More and
more Canadians demand a self-reliant economy under the control of the
actual producers. Such an economy would use the strengths of the modern
working class and Canada's natural resources to stabilize and grow the
internal economy in a self-reliant way, provide the people
with necessary social programs and public services, trade with others
for mutual benefit and development, and build the nation in opposition
to the nation-wrecking of the monopoly empire-builders.
Note
1. Details of Ernst & Young's Motion of
Oppression against Essar Global Fund
Ernst & Young launched the motion of oppression on
October 20.
The monitor and the many lawyers required are presumably being paid out
of Essar Steel Algoma's CCAA funds from production and the DIP,
although Essar Global has complained that it has to pay for its own
lawyers.
Ernst & Young's motion alleges that the Essar
Global Group as
owner of the subsidiary Essar Steel Algoma "exercised de facto control
and conduct over the Sault Ste. Marie steelmaker resulting in
transactions that benefit the parent company and has served as a
detriment to the steelmaker. Those ‘unfair' transactions include the
sale of the
Port of Algoma and the Co-Generation facility."
The monitor says the amount Essar Global transferred to
Essar Steel
Algoma for control of the port was less than its true value and should
be voided by the court. The motion also considers the agreement
regarding the co-generation facility as "unfair" and seeks damages that
would see the co-generation facility supply Algoma with energy for
its operations or pay Algoma for damages resulting from the
"oppression." The monitor wants Essar Global to pay Essar Steel
Algoma $9.1 million for money used for corporate jets and rent on
residential and office space in New York City. It also wants repayment
of up to $24.5-million in cash advances from the subsidiary to the
parent.
Regarding the use of a corporate jet the motion reads,
"This
aircraft was not used for Algoma's own business but by representatives
of and for the benefit of other members of the Essar Group." Also,
"From 2011 to 2016, Essar Steel Algoma paid a total
of $US7.5 million
for residential and office premises in New York
City that were similarly not incurred for the benefit of Algoma's
business but for other members of the Essar Group."
"Since the Essar Group's acquisition of [Essar Steel
Algoma] in
June of 2007, the Essar Group has exercised de facto control over
Algoma and has engaged in a course of conduct that consistently
preferred the interests of the Essar Group and in particular Essar
Global Fund Ltd., the ultimate parent company of the Essar Group and
its
stakeholders," the oppression lawsuit states.
"The course of conduct has caused Algoma to engage in
transactions
and dealings with the rest of the Essar Group to the benefit of the
group and the detriment of Algoma and its stakeholders. The unfair and
prejudicial transactions arising from the Essar Group's course of
conduct in relation to Algoma include but are not limited to the
transfer to the Essar Group of long-term control over Algoma's port
facilities, an irreplaceable and core strategic asset of Algoma and a
valuable equity interest in this asset." the monitor's lawsuit alleges.
Ernst & Young alleges:
"divestiture by Essar Steel Algoma of its co-generation
plant left
the steelmaker without contractual certainty for its electrical supply
"Essar Steel Algoma paid premiums to Essar Group
subsidiary New
Trinity Coal Inc. in excess of prices charged by Essar Algoma's other
coal suppliers
"transfer of Essar Algoma's port allowed the Essar
Group to obtain
an effective veto over transactions involving the Sault steel mill
"multi-million-dollar payments made by Essar Steel
Algoma to Essar
Mauritius for lump iron ore, metallurgical coal and coke essentially
amounted to interest-free loans that benefited Essar Group to the
detriment of Essar Algoma
"this course of conduct has caused Algoma to engage in
transactions
and dealings with the rest of Essar Group to the benefit of the group
and the detriment of Algoma and its stakeholders
"The port transaction constitutes a transfer at
undervalue, is void
and may not be set up against Algoma and/or its creditors and
stakeholders."
The motion alleges Algoma paid an Essar Group coal
supplier, Scott
Depot, W.Va.-based Trinity Coal Corp., prices that were higher than
Algoma's other suppliers, the monitor said in the complaint, asking the
court to order the parent to pay damages of $25 million in
relation to
the coal contracts. Trinity Coal is now known as New
Trinity Coal Inc an affiliate of Essar Global.
The complaint is requesting damages of $24.5
million for "trade
advances" that Algoma paid to Essar Steel Ltd., a Mauritius-based
affiliate of the parent company.
The Ontario mill was forced to divest its co-generation
plant "on
terms that left Algoma without contractual certainty as to electricity
supply from that facility." The subsidiary was also made to prepay
another Essar Group company for raw materials and received those
payments back, amounting to "de facto interest-free loans" for the
benefit
of the parent, according to the complaint.
Inter-Monopoly Fight Continues in the Steel Sector
Steelworkers are alert within the
situation to defend their rights and
the
broad interests of Canadians and their economy
Essar Global Fund is a Social Wealth Controlling Fund
(SWCF)
registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Mumbai, India.
Essar controls social wealth and property worldwide with 60,000
workers
in many sectors including steel, mining, shipping (26 vessels), ports
(many in India), retail, real estate, finance, etc. Essar
controls India's largest telecom retail network and one of the largest
in Africa. Essar also has large separate holdings in outsourcing with
over 55,000 employees worldwide. It wholly owns Aegis Limited, a
global
Outsourcing and Technology services company with 40,000 employees.
The
Essar monopoly borrowed and spent heavily to
acquire various companies prior to the 2008 economic crisis. Since
then
it has found its social wealth under increasing assault from other
SWCFs.
 Essar put Essar Steel
Algoma into bankruptcy protection
of the
federal Companies' Creditors
Arrangement Act (CCAA) in
November 2015
but soon lost control of the steel facility and bankruptcy process to
the Deutsche Bank-led $200 million debtor-in-possession financing
facility and the Court appointed Monitor, the U.S.-based
SWCF Ernst & Young.
Essar Global Fund has made several attempts to bring
Essar Steel
Algoma out of CCAA under its control but has so far failed due to the
opposition of the other SWCFs, including Cliffs Natural Resources based
in Minnesota. It also attempted to purchase U.S. Steel Canada during
the summer, which is also under CCAA, but likewise
failed.
Apparently, Essar has now teamed up with the U.S. SWCF
Cargill in a
new bid for U.S. Steel Canada. This relationship is interesting in that
Cargill is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is the largest
SWCF in the U.S. not listed for open trade on a stock market. Essar
Global's local subsidiary Essar Minnesota is engaged in a
long-running battle with Cliffs Natural Resources over the control of
Minnesota and Michigan's natural resources and specifically Essar's
iron ore mining facility under construction in the state, which entered
U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July. This
inter-monopoly
battle has spilled over into Canada with Cliffs delivering iron
ore to Essar Steel Algoma only on condition that Essar Global is
blocked from regaining control of the steel mill. U.S. Steel is also in
the mix of this inter-monopoly battle as it owns iron ore reserves and
mining facilities in Minnesota and competes directly with Cliffs for
markets and access to resources. Regarding U.S. Steel Canada's CCAA
process, the court has declared U.S. Steel as the principal creditor of
the
Stelco assets it owns.
Essar Global's alliance with
Cargill indicates that some of the
most powerful members of the financial oligarchy have lined up with it
in a battle for control of both steel and iron ore mining facilities.
Of note, is the huge presence of Cargill in India where Essar is also
predominant.[1]
Cargill's energy
and industrial unit also controls a global metals business that
operates nine steel service centres in the United States and China that
process and finish steel for end users.
The absence of Canadians' control over their basic
economy allows
this destructive inter-monopoly fighting to carry on without
restriction. None of the SWCFs currently battling for control of Essar
Steel Algoma and the former Stelco bring solutions to the problems in
the steel sector. Nor do they guarantee production, jobs, retirement
benefits or pensions. They are only looking out for their narrow
private interests. Steelworkers and their allies are acutely aware that
their welfare and security of employment and pensions are not a
consideration of these SWCFs and their political representatives in
government. Workers themselves are mobilizing their peers and allies
and building
their own institutions to defend their rights and the broad interests
of Canadians and their economy.
The root of the problem facing Canadians is their lack
of control
over their basic economy, politics and lives. This must change if
Canadians are to bring some stability and security to their lives. They
have to gain control over the basic sectors of the economy in a direct
clash with the monopoly front of the global financial oligarchy.
Workers
are organizing a powerful people's front capable of mobilizing
Canadians to stand up for their rights in the face of monopoly right.
Join in!
Note
1. Cargill in India
The Social Wealth
Controlling Fund, Cargill Foods
India, processes,
refines and markets a wide range of both indigenous and imported edible
oils, fats and blends to the food industry with customers in the
retail, food service sector and beverage industry. Cargill India is one
of the largest originators and marketers of food and coarse grains in
India. It also controls its own Trade and Structured Finance arm that
operates Cargill Capital and Financial Services India. Cargill Energy,
Transport and Metals BU is active across ocean freight, coal, iron ore
and steel trading. Cargill recently bought Sunflower Vanaspati oil
brand from
Wipro. Cargill is the second largest buyer of food grain from Indian
farmers behind only the government of India. Cargill also controls
Mosaic, one of the world's largest producers of fertilizers with
extensive mining and refining operations in six countries including
three potash mines in Saskatchewan.
Fort McMurray Workers Demand Their Rights
Fighting to Rebuild After Devastating Forest Fire
- Marie Thibault -
Meeting of Fort McMurray residents' evacuation relocation help group. (S. Legacy)
The working class city of Fort McMurray is fighting to
rebuild
after last May's devastating wildfire. The fire forced the evacuation
of 90,000 residents who for the most part either directly work
in the nearby oil fields or service the industry. Over the years, their
work-time collectively has produced more than one million barrels per
day of crude oil from area wells, adding enormous value to the Canadian
economy and society. They deserve to have their residences and local
businesses rebuilt either with investments from the private insurers,
oil monopolies or from government. Workers say this is far from the
case with many lives still upside-down even though oil production
in the vicinity is mostly back to normal.
"The Beast," as locals call the wildfire, destroyed or
damaged 2,793 homes or apartments and 3,200 units cannot be
re-occupied, according to July estimates from the Regional Municipality
of Wood Buffalo. Even though the oil monopolies called workers back to
work to restart production and 80,000 residents have returned,
as of October 20 just 184 development permits have been
issued for new
structures and only 30 houses are putting framework in place,
according
to city officials.
Workers point fingers at governments and the insurance
companies
for blocking redevelopment and re-establishing some sort of normal city
material, cultural and social life in the city. According to Red Cross
estimates
most of those who came back to find their charred houses gutted by the
fire have yet to start rebuilding as they have been blocked by
lack of investment funds and the demand for costly permits.
Kevin Lewis, a local demolition company owner, quoted
by Reuters,
said, "People are mad and companies are mad; there have been lawsuits
filed." The slow pace of insurance payouts and permit issuance is
causing tempers to flare. People question why the oil monopolies have
their operations back to normal with what seems no lack of
investment funds, while oil and service workers suffer a snail's pace
of recovery.
By July, residents had filed 45,000 fire insurance
claims with
damages estimated at $3.58 billion, according to the Insurance
Bureau
of Canada. Residential claims alone totalled 27,000. Complaints
against
the insurance companies for such issues as refusing to pay for water
damage abound. CBC reports residents
saying "they've had it with insurance companies that don't return calls
and emails, pressure them to accept low settlements or have been rude
and unprofessional."
 Workers, who deal with
complexities in their work every day, do not
appreciate hearing excuses from insurance and government officials,
such as a comment from the Municipality reported on CBC: "We hoped to
have a ton of houses started and on the ground but we have had
significant complexities." Why were the oil monopolies able to
deal with their "complexities" of restarting production but when it
comes to workers' living conditions, suddenly excuses replace concrete
action? This proves again that the economy in Canada is geared to serve
the narrow private interests of the global rich and the monopolies they
control and not the rights and well-being of the workers who
produce all the social wealth the economy and society require for their
existence.
Workers point out that concerted rebuilding should have
been
accomplished immediately after the fire during the late spring, summer
and early fall. Now with the brutal northern Alberta winter already
blowing about their ears, many residents will have to wait until next
spring to rebuild their homes. Daytime winter temperatures average
minus 12 Celsius, but can fall as low as minus 40C. Also,
cement
companies add a 10 per cent winter heat surcharge from
October 1 to
April 1 for pouring concrete.
"Lots of people are frustrated with how it's going. The
rebuild is
going slower than expected, I am not sure if it's insurance issues or
permits or a mixture of both," fire captain Damian Asher told CBC.
"People that are renting or living with friends are still sitting on
the edge of not knowing whether they will be able to start rebuilding
or not,"
Asher said.
Asher, who lost his home while battling the wildfire in
another
part of the city, says his own rebuilding plans have been delayed while
waiting for a demolition permit even though he has already
spent $12,000 on other permits. Forcing residents to pay for
multiple
rebuilding permits and other fees before work can begin and after they
have lost so much in the fire has outraged many returning workers. They
began a Facebook page dedicated to helping fellow evacuees and bringing
pressure on officials. They denounced the fact that owners of burned
houses had to pay for permits to rebuild while scrambling to find
investment money from savings and insurance. In the face of
mounting organized resistance, the local city council voted in
September to waive permit fees; one small victory in the fight to
defend the rights of residents in this embattled working class city.
Workers Demand Audit of Canadian Food
Inspection Agency Resources
Need to Defend Food Safety of Canadians
- Pierre Chénier -
Canadian food inspectors and their union, the
Agriculture Union
(part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada) are demanding an
immediate audit of the resources of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
(CFIA) to ensure that the federal agency has adequate resources to
oversee the industry and enforce safety standards.
 The federal government is
required to conduct such an audit every five years as per the Safe
Food for Canadians Act
passed in 2012 in response to the listeriosis outbreak at Maple
Leaf
Foods in 2008 that killed 22 people. It was clearly revealed
at that
time that the Maple Leaf Foods disaster was made possible by
severe cuts to food inspector positions and a change in the role of
food inspectors from performing inspections on the shop floor to
auditing the reports of plant owners. The federal government cut the
number of food inspectors and deregulated the food processing industry.
The same deregulation took place on the railways, also with tragic
consequences.
Four years after the Safe Food for Canadians Act
was
passed, no audit of the resources of the CFIA has been conducted
because the law is still not fully in force. The audit would have to be
done within five years of the law coming into force.
The Agriculture Union is asking Canadians to write to
Minister of
Health Jane Philpott who is responsible for the file to urge her to act
now to determine if CFIA has the human resources and the budget it
needs before another outbreak happens. The union points out that this
concern is even more urgent because, for the second time in a
decade, the government is reworking the food inspection system. In a
survey conducted earlier this year only 14 per cent of front-line
food
inspectors surveyed believe senior management can introduce the new
regime without compromising public safety.
Workers' Forum recently spoke with Bob
Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union. He gave some examples of
the
changes that are being implemented in the food inspection system.
"That whole process is being changed. [The standards
are] not going
to be prescriptive anymore in terms of what people have to do to
achieve things. They are going to leave it up to [the companies]. They
are not going to be asking for specific requirements from the
companies,"
Kingston said.
 "For example, an inspector
before might have a
prescribed set of
requirements for a plant to carry out. For example, to get rid of the E. coli in
hamburger, you would have to have a label that would say
that it would have to be cooked to a certain temperature. If you are
preparing a product that is called ‘ready to eat' it is supposed to
have
additives that would kill all bacteria and keep it safe while it sits
on a store shelf. The old legislation would say that to achieve that
you need to do x, y and z. They are afraid to tell people what to do so
they are just saying that you have to achieve food safety, whatever
that means, and they are not going to have any particulars attached to
it," he
added.
Kingston also said that the food inspection system is
moving towards "consolidation." The Safe
Food
for
Canadians
Act
consolidated many different pieces of legislation governing
different types of food, fish, meat, or processed products in cans
under one piece of legislation regarding food
inspection
"They think they can
consolidate everything so that one inspector
can look at five different products, whether they are trained or not.
If you had all experienced inspectors, inspectors who are experienced
in particular products, who would do the looking, people would not have
to worry that much. The inspector would know what is required.
But under the new system that the management in CFIA has in mind, you
are going to have somebody who has a degree in forestry looking at
fish, or somebody who has a science degree looking at canned corn. It
is crazy and all of this is also happening in the context of a shortage
of inspectors," Kingston said.
The Agriculture Union says that the CFIA is
transforming its
inspection systems to cope with the shortage of inspectors. That is why
the union is demanding an immediate audit to shed light on the actual
resources and budget of the CFIA rather than see the further reforms
implemented without public scrutiny.
 The union elaborates the
urgency of the situation on
its website:
"This is like déjà vu
all over again. The last time the
CFIA did
something similar was just before the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis
outbreak that killed 22 people. The investigation into the
disaster
concluded: Too few inspectors were on the job prior to the outbreak,
and just
before the outbreak, a new inspection system was 'implemented without a
detailed assessment of the resources available.'"
"What happened is that they made a change from a
hands-on
inspection process to an auditing process. They had no idea what this
would mean and what it meant was that everybody was tied up sitting in
offices reading documents instead of being on the plant floor. So all
that stuff about the dirty cutting machines that kept on
re-contaminating finished beef products at Maple Leaf, no inspector saw
that because they were too busy in the office doing paperwork. All that
stuff that happened on the floor, the plant did not even report to
CFIA. Inspectors need to be on the floor. The idea of doing auditing is
a good thing because it is good to evaluate the process from time
to time, but that is not regulatory inspection. That is like doing a
check up, that is an annual event. That is not hands-on inspection. For
these people to think they can replace inspections with audits makes no
sense," Kingston told Workers' Forum.
"They need to describe what they want, describe in
detail what they
think the new system would look like, and then we can evaluate whether
there are enough resources to do it or not," Kingston concluded.
Teachers, Students, Parents and Allies
Continue to Fight for Their Schools
BC Liberal Government Fires
Vancouver School Board
- Anne Jamieson -
Rally in support of fired Vancouver School Board trustees, October 20,
2016.
 On October 17,
BC Education Minister Mike Bernier announced that all
members of the Vancouver School Board (VSB) had been fired -- to be
replaced by an appointed trustee. The dismissal came hours before a VSB
budget meeting scheduled for the same evening. "It's extremely
upsetting that the province has chosen to fire our
democratically elected trustees" said one parent, and added "They were
our only representatives that we were able to express our concerns to
and now we don't know. There is a lot of uncertainty."
The reason given for firing the School Board? They did
not "balance the budget by June 30."
"Balanced Budget Law"
The "balanced budget law" regarding school districts
was passed by
the previous Liberal government led by Gordon Campbell, with Christy
Clark in the position of Education Minister. That government had also
made it illegal for teachers to strike, and stripped parts of teachers'
contracts concerning class sizes and compositions -- an action
that courts at two levels, including the BC Supreme Court, found
illegal. Nonetheless, the Liberal government, now with Christy Clark at
the helm, has continued to use public funds to appeal the rulings and
has continued to cut funding to public education while increasing
funding to private education. Across the province, school boards have
been
scrambling for 15 years to balance their budgets, cutting teaching
positions, librarians, vice-principal and support positions, and bus
services.
Sites of Education Become Toxic Workplaces
 Similar to the deteriorating
working conditions in B.C.
hospitals during the ongoing process of "restructuring," working
conditions for employees in the schools under the same pressures have
become toxic. A number of administrators have taken medical leaves due
to the
increased stress. The number of sick days of other employees has not
been made public.
On June 18, in an effort to obey the balanced
budget law, the
besieged Vancouver School Board announced that a number of schools
would be closed the following school year. The rationale given was the
schools need seismic upgrading, and the provincial government would pay
for this only for schools that had enrolment numbers of
at least 95 per cent capacity. In a kind of musical chairs, there
was a
tentative list of 21 possible closures, which was reduced
to 12, mostly
on the East Side. Teachers, parents and students of each catchment area
were left to worry whether or not their school would be on the final
hit list.
Rather than vying with each other to be taken off the
list, they decided to join forces to resist.
Save Our Schools Campaign
In June, hundreds of parents, teachers, students and
community
members organized a campaign to resist the anti-social offensive of the
provincial government. "There shouldn't be any schools on that list,"
said an Indigenous speaker at a rally at Britannia High School. "This
is part of a neo-liberal offensive against everybody," he said. A huge
number of signatures were collected on petitions, hundreds of lawn
signs were erected and two large rallies were held at Gladstone and
Britannia Secondary Schools. After the Britannia School rally, the VSB
removed it from the list of possible closures. Then, on October 3,
the
campaign won a moratorium on all school closures. The reaction
of the BC Liberals was swift -- they fired all members of the VSB. The
Save Our School campaign activists were outraged; the next day they
delivered the petitions with 18,000 signatures to the office of
the
Education Minister.
What Kind of Government
Attacks Its Schools and School
Boards?
Education of its children and youth is a basic function
of a
society. Having access to quality education is a prerequisite to
participation in that society, and is a right. A government that does
not recognize the value and necessity of providing for the educational
needs
of members of the polity cannot be said to represent the members of
that society.
It is indeed outrageous that instead of supporting the
VSB and
asking them what funds and support are needed for a quality education
for all, the Liberal government fired them, after years of starving and
denuding the educational system. It is like a demented beast attacking
its young. The policy of the Liberal government towards the
educational system is an attack on people's right to stable investments
in social programs, but also the right that elected officials cannot be
summarily removed at the stroke of a pen by a higher level of
government. The Save Our Schools campaign shows that it is necessary to
actively oppose the wrecking activities of the neo-liberal-inspired
governments that are in power; it also shows that democratic renewal is
the order of the day.
Banner drop in solidarity with fired VSB trustees, Victoria, October
20, 2016.
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