A day after the province's Progressive Conservative government enacted a law that would make striking by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) education workers illegal, local members joined thousands across the province in hitting the picket lines Friday.
Day 1 of the CUPE strike began Friday morning (all schools in the region were closed because of it) and the area surrounding the constituency office for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey was flooded with frustrated workers.
Lou Tavares, a custodian with the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB), told BarrieToday this was not just a protest for fair wages, but also for democracy.
“With them using the notwithstanding clause, this is a threat to every union, a threat to everybody, and people in Ontario and Canada should be outraged,” said Tavares. “I hope they are and I hope they know what it all really means.”
The notwithstanding clause allows the legislature to override parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a five-year term, to keep the eventual law in force despite any potential constitutional challenges.
Tavares called the use of the clause pre-emptive and said it was obvious to him the government wasn’t acting in good faith.
Gerald Frank, another custodial worker with the SMCDSB, agreed.
“That notwithstanding clause is not something you enact overnight, so that shows me they had that in the works for weeks,” he said. “So, that means they had no intention of bargaining in good faith from the get-go.”
Tavares said he has heard the narrative being spun that striking workers don’t care about parents and kids — a claim he called “ridiculous.”
“We are parents and grandparents. Our children are the ones being affected and we, parents, are the ones now having to seek daycare and the costs that come with that,” he said. “So, us being out here shows how much we all actually really do care. (Education Minister Stephen) Lecce says that parents are outraged? He’s right. We are among the outraged parents.”
CUPE has said its workers, who make on average $39,000 a year, are generally the lowest paid in schools.
Tavares said while the democracy of today is a big issue, getting paid properly is, too.
“(Premier Doug) Ford and Lecce attempt to give us cents on the dollar when inflation is so high and we are 10 per cent behind over the last 10 years,” he said. “There was a time we were treated as being so essential and so needed, during the pandemic. They needed us to work hard to clean and work against a pandemic we’d never seen before, but now we’re not worth a dime?”
Caitlin Bergeron, a child and youth worker at Sunnybrae Public School in Innisfil, called the use of the notwithstanding clause “scary.”
“I’m here today to stand up for CUPE’s rights, for our rights and, truly, for everybody’s rights. The fact they would try to stop people from their right to protest is a scary thing, and one has to wonder where it stops,” she said.
Bergeron said she works with some of the most vulnerable students.
“I work with some of those with the highest needs and most at risk. My job is to teach social skills and self-regulation,” she said. “We have someone here today who has been hurt on the job. It can be very dangerous, and the government doesn’t seem to take that into account.”
The province is taking strikers to the Ontario Labour Relations Board over the action, with a hearing set for later Friday.
The law says violating a prohibition on strikes for the duration of the agreement can come with fines of up to $4,000 per employee per day, which could amount to $220 million for all 55,000 workers, while there are fines of up to $500,000 per day for the union, likely seeking help from other labour groups.
When asked how long the strike could last, Jen Hare, president of the teachers’ bargaining unit of District 17 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said since the government has taken “unforeseen action against the right of all workers in Ontario by targeting CUPE, the lowest-paid workers in our sector, we are in uncertain times.”
“I will say that unless this government reverses their actions, this could be the first of many disruptions to come from union groups across the province. We need to stand up to the use of the notwithstanding clause and this obvious abuse of power,” she said.
The Canadian Press reported the government originally offered raises of two per cent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all others, but Lecce said the new, imposed four-year deal would give 2.5 per cent annual raises to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent raises for all others.
CUPE has said that is not accurate because the raises depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers who earn less than $43,000 in a year wouldn’t get 2.5 per cent.
CUPE had been seeking annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent.
