02) NDP SUPPORT FOR BACK TO WORK LAW DELIVERS FOR CORPORATIONS

(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Liz Rowley, leader of the CPC (Ontario)

The unanimous vote in the Ontario Legislature to pass back to work legislation against striking members of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union exposed the core essence of the Liberal government, as anti-labour and neo-liberal.

     It also exposed the NDP, confirming for many working people that in fact there really isn't much difference between the bourgeois parties, who really are all the same in the clutch, at least when it comes to labour's essential right to strike.

     We have it on good authority that only two NDP MPPs argued in caucus against supporting the back to work legislation; the rest supported it from the outset. Not surprising perhaps, since the majority of this caucus were members of the Rae government in 1990, and Howard Hampton was a member of Rae's cabinet. These were the people who brought in Rae Days, the social contract that forcibly rolled back wages for public sector workers across the province.

     The two MPPs who opposed the back to work bill are said to be Peter Kormos from Welland and newly elected Paul Miller, a Local 1005 steelworker from Hamilton. Both represent constituencies where workers have been hard hit by layoffs, closures, takeovers and take-backs by multi-national corporations. It would have been important for their constituents, for workers across Ontario, and for striking ATU members if they had spoken out in the Legislature, and voted against the Bill.

     For swift passage, the Bill had to have unanimous support. The NDP could have delayed its passage by several days, giving the ATU time to negotiate. This would have put pressure on the TTC, the Mayor and the City of Toronto to make a deal. Most important, it would have denied Big Business the slam dunk they demanded - and received - to eliminate the right to strike for municipal transit workers.

     Premier McGuinty and NDP Mayor David Miller are now calling for legislation to declare municipal transit an essential service. The NDP caucus has made no statements opposing the proposed legislation expected this fall, nor have they opposed the campaign of demonization against Local 113 and transit workers who have been attacked in the media and assaulted on buses and streetcars.

     The NDP has abandoned these workers who were exercising their legal right to strike after a tentative agreement was rejected in a ratification vote by a margin of 60%. The union stayed on the job for weeks past its strike deadline to continue bargaining with an employer that had put concessions and two-tier wages on the table. The strike was just two days old and on a weekend when the Legislature was convened to pass back to work legislation. 

     It's no surprise that workers don't support the NDP and don't vote for them in elections.

     The NDP caucus voted with the Tories and Liberals to attack city transit workers, and attacked workers' right to strike across Ontario. Like the Social Contract, this was a litmus test for the NDP. It won't be forgotten. 

     Kormos and Miller are fighting an uphill battle, in a party that doesn't agree with them on a fundamental and central question.

     With huge job losses and deep recession on the way, this question is only going to get bigger. The left and progressive forces in Ontario need to step up the fight in defence of labour and democratic rights, jobs and living standards, social programs and services. Broad unity, solidarity and a mass struggle to push back the neo-liberal agenda is needed now. 

     The Communist Party (Ontario) will fight for this kind of unity in action around policies that put people's needs ahead of corporate profits and that defend and expand labour, democratic and civil rights. We will continue to fight to enshrine workers' rights to strike, picket and organize in a Bill of Rights for Labour as an urgent priority. 

     The coming CLC convention can take the initiative to launch a counter-offensive against the neo-liberal corporate agenda, and the Big Business parties in Ottawa and Toronto that speak for them.  Working people's rights, jobs, living standards, and future depend on it.