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The Toronto Sun
Mon Oct 29 2012
Column: Letters to the Editor
FIGHTING MAD AT LIBERALS
We are taught as children not to fight at school — not to raise our fists — not to be taunted by those willing to throw a few punches. Lately, the Ontario Liberal Party has thrown too many punches for me to just stand by and wait for the next blow. As an education support worker, I am good and mad, and ready to fight back. The Liberals’ reckless handling of the province’s coffers initiated Bill 115 as a “finger in the dike” solution to the provincial debt. Schools run on the dedicated service of education support staff workers. Bill 115 attacks these workers. Along with a wage freeze, and a forensic dissection of sick leave and retirement gratuities, this bill is an unprecedented attack on free collective bargaining, and allows the government to overrule freely negotiated collective agreements. As vice-president of a CUPE local, I can not stand by to see the labour movement has gained over the years slip through this austerity program. Ask your MPP how he/she voted on Sept. 11? Liberals alone did not carry off this Bill, Conservative numbers ensured the 82 ayes outnumbered the 15 nays. Putting students first can not put workers last. Martin Luther King said “we have a moral obligation to fight unjust laws.” Repeal Bill 115. Dalton McGuinty’s jumping ship reminds me of the rats on the Titanic — passengers thought great, the rats are gone, but are we too going to experience a worse fate?
Lois Linttell, Vankleek Hill, Vice-President, CUPE local 5678
