04) ONTARIO TEACHERS AND EDUCATION WORKERS FACE TOUGH BARGAINING

 

By Liz Rowley

 

            The passage of Bill 122 last April created a new two‑tiered bargaining platform for Ontario's teachers and educational workers. Major money issues like wages will be bargained provincially, and local issues with local School Boards. For many, this seemed to be a step forward, since the previous Tory government stripped School Boards of their taxing powers, while imposing balanced budget legislation. The thinking was: the province has the purse strings, let's bargain where the money is.

 

            But the Liberal government has just been re‑elected after campaigning on a budget that promised an across-the-board public wage freeze, along with privatization of public services, and the sell‑off of public assets. The Premier didn't spend a lot of time talking about these items, preferring to focus on a provincial pension plan and a 10-year infrastructure plan. But the wage freeze and privatization is at the core of the plan to pay for it all, while corporate taxes will continue to fall to a CIT rate of 10%. (The provincial Tories are pressing for an 8% CIT rate.)

 

            Teachers and education workers are first up at the plate, with the Bill 115 contract imposed by former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty expiring at the end of August. Bill 115 suspended free collective bargaining in the education sector two years ago, removing $2 billion from the pockets of teachers and support staff. That prompted massive province‑wide demonstrations which eventually forced McGuinty to resign, proroguing the Legislature for almost six months.

 

            His successor, Kathleen Wynne, won last June's election by divorcing herself from McGuinty and Bill 115, with the promise "never again". Wynne could easily have lost, if not for the far right policies of the Hudak Tories, and the right‑wing NDP campaign. In fact, the Liberal platform appeared much more progressive than the other two.

 

            Now the Liberals' teeth are showing as they attempt to force another round of cuts. Mid‑August gatherings of the Elementary and Secondary Teachers' Federations jeered and scoffed when the Premier addressed them with her message of austerity and cuts.

 

            Federation Presidents Sam Hammond (ETFO) and Paul Elliott (OSSTF) told media they don't want a repeat of the struggle two years ago, but their members will not accept a wage freeze. It was a polite way to say the ball is in the government's court to bargain fairly and prevent a strike or workplace action ‑ which this time could be province‑wide.

 

            The Premier is kidding herself if she thinks teachers and education workers have forgotten their bitterness against the Liberals and Bill 115, just below the surface. It wouldn't take much to rekindle that anger.

 

            Wynne's response through the media was that the envelope for education funding was sealed, but the funds inside could be moved around. It was an invitation to use some of the funds for special education, capital funding, and other under-funded pieces of the education pie, to buttress wages and benefits instead. This offer to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic was a trap to pit workers against students and community.

 

            But the unity of teachers, educational workers, students, parents, and the community can stop the government from its wage cuts and austerity. It's important to win Round One of this fight, since the nurses and healthcare workers are next. This is where the pattern is set.

 

            Left out so far are the School Boards, the gate‑keepers of education in cities and towns across Ontario. For too long, too many of them have functioned as willing accomplices in imposing austerity and cuts. Some Trustees are too timid, and some too anxious to be "team players" for future political benefits. Some Trustees and Boards, including those in Hamilton, Windsor, Ottawa and Toronto, have distinguished themselves by standing up to right-wing governments and refusing to implement devastating cuts. That was ten years ago. But those are exactly the kind of Boards and Trustees we need today.

 

            October 27 is election day in Ontario, a good time to change the composition of the Boards. We need to elect progressive majorities who will fight for quality public education, including good wages and benefits for the workers in the system, and a needs-based funding formula to deliver quality education to Ontario's children and adult learners. It's a package: teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions. Quality education matters to all of us ‑ now and in the future.

 

            School Boards embody local autonomy and local democracy in every city and community. That's why they're relevant, that's why we need them. The Boards must speak out for free collective bargaining, and stand by teachers and educational workers, students and parents, who want the government to negotiate a deal and let the teachers teach and the support workers support.

 

            Some of the candidates who should be elected this time include Howard Kaplan, running for re‑election in Toronto's North York, Juanita Burnett in Guelph, and Harinder Pal Singh Hundal in Brampton. They have good track records in their community of fighting austerity, and standing up for good services. Take a good look at your candidates and watch what they do in the next few weeks. That's how you will know who to vote for by October.

 

(The above article is from the September 1-15, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist 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.)