01) FIGHTING TO RESTORE FREE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Special to PV

     Teachers and educational workers fighting to restore free collective bargaining ‑ and repeal Ontario's Bill 115 ‑ have found widespread public support, to the shock and mortification of Dalton McGuinty's minority Liberal government.

     The government, supported by the Tories, had hoped to win the Sept. 6 by‑election in Kitchener Waterloo, by manufacturing a crisis in education (a la Mike Harris in the 1990s) that pitted teachers and educational workers against students and the public.

     But KW voters got the picture. The Liberal candidate came in third behind the Tory, while the NDP elected Catharine Fife, Chair of the local School Board and President of the Ontario Public School Boards Association.

     Now students in high schools across the province have also figured it out. Many are organizing against Bill 115 and in support of teachers and educational workers. A big protest is being organized September 29th involving schools from several Boards.

     While some students are unhappy that elementary teachers (ETFO) are refusing to volunteer for extra‑curricular activities before and after school, most understand that teachers now have no other way to protest Bill 115.

     And so students have taken to the streets and podiums to demonstrate their opposition to a Bill that arbitrarily suspends free collective bargaining and the right to strike for two years, freezes wages, attacks sick days and pensions and alters the grid, all of which will effectively reduce education spending by $2 billion.  

     Students know the impact the cuts will have to their education, and that's why they are actively supporting teachers and educational workers represented by the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), and CUPE. 

     Labour Councils and unions are also organizing anti‑Bill 115 demonstrations, and a resolution from the Action Caucus is making the rounds across the province. As well as calling for repeal of Bill 115, the resolution calls for an end to public funding of the parallel Catholic school system, and the expansion of a single, secular public school system open to all, regardless of religion or sexual orientation.

     In response, the Liberals are preparing a new Bill that would suspend free collective bargaining and impose a wage freeze and other changes to pensions and benefits, across the whole public sector. Expected to be tabled in the Legislature in October with support of the Tories, this Bill could spark even bigger protests, destabilizing the government and possibly forcing an election.

     The Communist Party is calling on the OFL and the Common Front to organize broad based, escalating actions across the province.

     A petition opposing Bill 115 was circulated by People's Voice at the Sept. 23 Word on the Street festival in Toronto, securing hundreds of signatures in support of free collective bargaining for teachers and educational workers.

     The public gets it. But not the minority Liberals or the Tories. Mass action in the streets should help them learn this lesson: back off or face defeat. Mr. Charest learned that too late.

(The above article is from the October 1-15, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)