There, a day earlier, the Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation that imposed contracts on 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and prohibited them from striking. The law also uses the Invalidity Clause to protect against constitutional challenges. But CUPE says the law is an attack on all workers’ bargaining rights and is going on strike anyway, warning it will likely last more than a day. The law sets fines for violating a strike ban for the duration of the agreement of up to $4,000 per worker per day, with fines of up to $500,000 for the union. Education Minister Steven Lecce suggested the government would indeed pursue those penalties, while the union said it would foot the bill for fines imposed on workers, which could cost up to $220 million a day. CUPE plans to fight the fines, but at the end of the day, the union said if it has to pay, it will. CUPE leaders have previously suggested the union is seeking outside financial help from other labor groups. WATCHES | CUPE leadership harangues MPPs as they vote on Bill 28:
Ford skips final vote on bill banning strike by education workers
Supporters of Ontario’s education workers demonstrated in the gallery of the provincial legislature Thursday, moments after Premier Doug Ford lost a final vote on legislation that would make it illegal for 55,000 teachers to strike and contract them. Many school boards across the province, including the Toronto District School Board and most boards in eastern Ontario, have said schools will be closed during the strike, while others plan to move to distance learning. The Department for Education urged school boards to “implement contingency plans where every effort is made to keep schools open for as many children as possible” and otherwise “must support students in a quick transition to distance education”. The government initially offered raises of two percent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 percent for everyone else, but Lecce said the new, mandated four-year deal would give 2.5 percent annual raises to workers with less than $43,000 and 1.5 percent raises for everyone else. CUPE said the framework is not accurate because the increases actually depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers earning less than $43,000 in a year would not get 2.5 percent. CUPE said its workers, who make an average of $39,000 a year, are generally the lowest paid in schools and were asking for annual wage increases of 11.7 percent. The union said it had more than halved its wage proposal in a counteroffer it gave the government on Tuesday night and made “substantial” moves in other areas as well. But the government said it would not negotiate unless CUPE called off the strike. Members of several other unions are set to join CUPE members on the picket lines.
