On Monday, October 31st, the Ford Conservatives took the unprecedented step of proposing legislation that would force a contract on education workers, violating workers’ constitutional right to bargain fairly, keeping many workers in poverty, instead of continuing with negotiations.
To pass it, they’ve invoked the notwithstanding clause, overriding the Charters’ protections of the fundamental right to the collective bargaining process.
This is the first time in the history of Canada that a government has done so to pre-emptively end a labour action.
There’s a growing chorus of Ontarians, unions, and community organizations who are expressing their outrage about both the paltry elements of the government’s offer as well as their bullying tactics to ram it through.
The 55,000 members of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) – custodians, maintenance and library workers, secretaries, early childhood educators, educational assistants, IT professionals – who are working in publicly-funded schools across Ontario are the backbone of Ontario’s public education system. They are also the lowest-paid education workers, earning, on average, only $39,000 a year which has left many on the brink of poverty.
Let’s send a message to the Ford Conservatives that they need to drop the bully tactics, withdraw this legislation, and come up with a real deal that works for education workers, students, and parents.
Dear Premier Ford,
On Monday, October 31st, you took the unprecedented step of proposing legislation that would force a contract on education workers, violating workers’ constitutional right to bargain fairly, keeping many workers in poverty, instead of continuing with negotiations.
To pass it, you’ve invoked the notwithstanding clause, overriding the Charters’ protections of the fundamental right to the collective bargaining process.
This is the first time in the history of Canada that a government has done so to pre-emptively end a labour action.
There’s a growing chorus of Ontarians, unions, and community organizations who are expressing their outrage about both the paltry elements of your offer as well as your bullying tactics to ram it through.
The 55,000 members of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) – custodians, maintenance and library workers, secretaries, early childhood educators, educational assistants, IT professionals – who are working in publicly-funded schools across Ontario are the backbone of Ontario’s public education system. They are also the lowest-paid education workers, earning, on average, only $39,000 a year which has left many on the brink of poverty.
Let’s send a message to the Ford Conservatives that they need to drop the bully tactics, withdraw this legislation, and come up with a real deal that works for education workers, students, and parents.
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