The Ontario government introduced legislation on Monday that is supposed to prevent a strike by education workers on Friday.
The 82-page billonce passed, would establish a four-year collective agreement with approximately 55,000 school support staff under the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) – including custodians, early childhood educators, teacher’s aides and administrative staff – and would make the strike illegal.
But the legislation won’t stop entirely to prevent labor action. Here’s what you need to know:
What is this legislation?
The bill uses the notwithstanding clause to override elements of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent education workers from going on strike. It also imposes a four-year contract on employees that includes a 2.5% pay raise for those earning less than $43,000 a year and a 1.5% raise for all other employees.
The government hopes to pass the law on Thursday, a day before CUPE can legally strike as part of the normal bargaining process.
Will he prevent a strike?
Not immediately. CUPE said Monday it was planning a province-wide walkout on Friday, regardless of the legislation.
“That means no CUPE education workers will be at work. Instead, we will take a stand for public education for ourselves and for our future,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.
It is not known if the demonstration will continue the following week. People who don’t comply with the new legislation could be fined up to $4,000 a day.
If all the members go on strike, they could face collective fines of around $220 million in a single day.
The union itself could face a fine of up to $500,000.
Will schools close?
A number of school boards have indicated they will close schools if support staff decide to leave work on Friday.
This includes the Toronto Catholic District School Board, Halton District School Board, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington (PVNC) Catholic District School Board, and Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
The Toronto District School Board has yet to confirm what this means for students.
CUPE also said it was reaching out to other education unions to discuss the possibility of them joining the picket lines.
Can the union fight against the legislation?
No. The use of the notwithstanding clause makes it nearly impossible to challenge the bill in court. This is how education workers successfully appealed a decision by a previous Liberal government to freeze wages and limit employees’ ability to strike.
At the time, a judge ruled that the government “significantly interfered with meaningful collective bargaining” and ordered them to pay unions more than $100 million.
Despite this, Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters on Monday he believed his government’s use of the notwithstanding clause was constitutional.
What does this mean for other education unions in the bargaining process?
At least one other union of education workers decided on Monday to withdraw from the bargaining table following the legislation. In a statement, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) said the bill “undermines the process of free and fair collective bargaining.”
“On that day, ETFO could not in good conscience sit at the government table, and so we ended negotiations for the day,” he said.
All of the other major unions representing Ontario teachers have expressed their disappointment with the government’s actions.
It is still unclear what impact this will have on their negotiation process.
Lecce seemed indifferent when asked if the legislation could disrupt bargaining in other sectors, saying the bill was “very specific” to education support workers.
“In the meantime, we will continue to negotiate with other partners in the sector and our teachers to really get a voluntary agreement that is fair to their workers and respects the good work they do, but above all keeps these children in school” , did he declare. .
What happens next?
While CUPE says it has another offer to make, the government has basically said it’s no longer interested in listening.
“We made the union understand. They had the opportunity to present a counter-proposal to the government,” he said. “We gave them that chance. They could have told us, you know, give us a day. They said ‘no, we are going to strike on Friday’.
Lecce said he presented CUPE with the updated agreement and told them to rescind their strike notice. When they did not, the government decided to invoke the notwithstanding clause.
“We’re going to go ahead and pass this law and keep the kids in the classroom.”
Unions are required to give five days’ notice before calling a strike in Ontario. CUPE gave its strike notice on Sunday.
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