Doug Ford reaches deal with education workers to avert strike

After more than 170 days of negotiations and one aborted strike, Doug Ford’s government has reached a tentative agreement with Ontario’s education workers union. 

On December 5th, 30,330 education workers in Ontario voted 73% in favor of accepting a tentative agreement with 11,229 turning the deal down. 

The deal comes with a flat $1-per-hour raise each year, or 3.59% over the course of the four-year contract as well as repayment for the two days workers spent protesting Bill 28. 

For the first time in nearly a decade, education workers have achieved a collective agreement that was not imposed on them by government legislation. But how did we get to this point?

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) renewed its call for a strike on November 21 after failing to reach a deal with the Ontario government. 

School support workers walked off the job in Canada’s largest province in early November after talks collapsed between CUPE and Doug Ford’s government.  

Union officials originally called for workers to strike shortly after the government introduced draconian back-to-work legislation that side-stepped Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and overrode the education worker's constitutional right to strike. 

“It is clear that this government never intended to negotiate,” the union bargaining committee said, “The time and 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 and ensured the services that students desperately need are secured.”

Hefty fines were introduced in Bill 28, better known as the Keeping Students in Class Act, which included a $4000 dollar fine for workers who opted to strike and $500,000 for any union that decided to organize striking workers.

“We will use every tool available to send a clear unambiguous message,” Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce said when he introduced the legislation, “schools should be open and there's accountability for breaking the law.” 

The Canadian Union of Public Employees said that it would fight the government’s fines if necessary, and also committed to backstopping workers who are fined under the government's legislation. 

“We are giving our members clear instructions,” Candace Rennick, CUPE’s national secretary-treasurer, said. “If you are fined on the picket line, you report that fine to your president and you let the union know and we will provide you with further instructions.”

Rennick went on to say, “If the government of Ontario wants to clog up the justice system with $4,000 per member per day fines, then I say bring it on.” 

Bill 28 also imposed a four-year, non-negotiable contract on 55,000 of the province's school custodial staff, administrative assistants, and early childhood educators. 

Part of the forced contract included an annual wage increase of 2.5 percent for workers making under $43,000 a year and a 1.5 percent increase for all other employees, a slap-in-the-face to some of Canada’s most underpaid public workers. 

In mediation talks with the government, the CUPE’s bargaining committee argued for an 11.7 percent increase for all educational support workers, which would amount to about 3.25 more an hour across the board, and even reduced their ask to just 6 percent prior to the passing of Bill 28. 

“This government was looking to find a bargain basement deal [that] didn't respect students, that didn't respect workers, that didn't respect families. So they're going to legislate it,” said Laura Walton, the president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, “What is going in place today is a piece of legislation. It is not a deal.” 

Union officials have since issued a “call to arms” for all union members and anyone who believes in Canada’s Charter rights, which enshrines a citizen's right to self-organize and strike in accordance with the law. 

“This isn’t just about education workers, this is about the rights of all working people across the country,” said CUPE National President Mark Hancock. “The message from our leaders here in Ontario is clear: our members are united, and they intend to fight – and they have Canada’s largest union in their corner and we are going to fight alongside them.”

The introduction of Bill 28 has also had a significant impact on the Canadian populace since it was done using the country’s controversial “notwithstanding clause”, a powerful and rarely used parliamentary power that allows provincial governments to override certain portions of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed Ontario Premier Doug Ford for his use of the notwithstanding clause as a strike-breaking tool. 

“It is a very, very serious thing to suspend people’s fundamental rights and freedoms,” Trudeau said. “The proactive use of the notwithstanding clause is actually an attack on people’s fundamental rights and, in this case, is an attack on one of the most basic rights available—that of collective bargaining.”

“I think there are a lot of people, a lot of parents like me, who have kids in Ontario schools that are concerned about the job action, about the strikes, but I can tell you, all parents, all parents, should be extremely worried about the suspension of our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”

The expected strike never came, however. Ford backed down from imposing his strike-busting legislation and repealed Bill 28 on November 14th. 

After a few days of hard negotiations, CUPE claimed that the Ford government was still unwilling to make any concessions and gave their workers a 5-day notice to begin a renewed strike. 

Negotiations were stuck in limbo until CUPE's bargaining committee finally caved and brought the government's offer to the workers, giving them a chance to voice their opinions to vote the agreement down and prepare for a strike--an outcome that was ultimately avoided with workers choosing the deal.