On Monday — in response to a potential strike by 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) — the provincial government tabled back-to-work legislation that included a plea clause that would override CUPE’s ability to create legal recourse against the legislation. The inclusion of the controversial back-to-work clause means the union can no longer use the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to argue that a worker has the right to strike as part of the right to collectively bargain for better working conditions . “It’s a very politically charged and highly controversial action by a government to say, ‘We don’t care if this legislation infringes Charter rights, we’re going to go ahead with it,’” said Margot Young, professor of law at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law. Colombia. Ontario’s major education unions are renegotiating contracts. Here’s what you need to know Prof Young added that the five-year time limit of the skip clause effectively meant that CUPE and its members in the education sector would not be able to challenge the back-to-work legislation for the next five years. Unions across the country are successfully mobilizing workers in a way not seen in the labor movement in years amid a spectrum of high inflation and a general sense of hopelessness among workers — especially those on the front lines of the pandemic. And there have been significant wins on the wage front. The BC Union of General Employees, for example, negotiated a historic double-digit wage increase of 14 per cent over three years for 33,000 public sector workers who went on strike in September, rejecting an 11 per cent offer from the province. Last week, CUPE demanded an 11.7 per cent annual wage increase for the education workers it represents in Ontario, but that was blocked by the government, prompting the union to announce a strike. Doug Ford’s government responded to this with back-to-work legislation. Unions are attacking this latest move. The Ontario Federation of Labor said it was a “dark day” for workers and called on the government to withdraw the legislation and “negotiate in good faith.” The Ontario Association of English Catholic Teachers has accused the province of abusing its power to undermine the collective bargaining process. “This is an extremely aggressive claim by the Ford administration to prevent a strike, especially in a situation involving education workers, who are typically not considered essential unlike health care workers,” said Eric Tucker, emeritus professor at the University of York, specializing in employment law. . There is legal precedent for unions to challenge back-to-work legislation, according to Professor Young and Professor Tucker. In 2016, for example, an Ontario court ruled that federal back-to-work legislation imposed on members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers was unconstitutional because it violated the freedom of association and expression guaranteed by the workers’ charter. The problem for unions is that even when they legally challenge back-to-work legislation, it sometimes takes years for the challenge to go through the courts. “Normally, back-to-work legislation comes into effect immediately and that’s the end of it,” Professor Tucker said. “There are of course situations where unions have defied these laws and not returned to work, but they are very unusual in part because of the financial penalties for disobeying,” he added. The Ontario government’s Keeping Students in Class Act fines an individual $4,000 for striking – and the legislation dictates that each day a person breaks the law by striking is a separate offence. “You can imagine why workers would be willing to comply with the law,” Professor Tucker said. But CUPE said that regardless of the legislation, its members intend to go on strike this Friday. Under Mr. Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party, the Ontario government seems to have pushed for better working conditions in some aspects of employment. In the past year, the government introduced legislation on the right to disconnect and a law requiring employers to disclose to their employees how they are being tracked electronically. But Monday’s response to CUPE strike action appears to cement the Ford government’s anti-labor position, labor experts say. Alison Braley-Rattai, a professor of labor studies at Brock University, called the use of the clause a “nuclear option” that was “unnecessary to the stated goal of ensuring that the school year is not disrupted.” Professor Braley-Rattai told The Globe and Mail that in labor disputes, invoking this clause was virtually unprecedented. “Section 33, the non-existent clause, is invoked so rarely that in the early decades of the Charter, some believed it was political suicide. But I think that’s starting to change and I expect to see more of that from right-wing governments,” he added.
