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(The following article is from the February 1-14, 2009, 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.)

PV Ontario Bureau

Seven months after ordering striking TTC workers back to work, the Ontario Liberals introduced similar legislation on Jan. 25. This time the target is striking members of CUPE Local 3903, mostly contract teachers and workers at York University, fighting for job security in a workplace where all are obliged to re-apply for their jobs annually.

     Some have worked as long as 15 or 20 years at York, never knowing from one year to the next whether the University will rehire them, or to teach one course or five. Members of Local 3903 teach most of the courses at York, but their wages are a fraction of the university budget. Many of these low paid contract workers are also post-graduate students, facing high tuition fees.

     Because the conditions at York are similar for contract teachers at most Canadian universities, their struggle will set the stage for negotiations and settlements across the board. This is no doubt why York's right-wing administration has refused to negotiate, effectively locking out its employees, and waiting for provincial legislation.

     Ontario Communist Party leader Liz Rowley charges the government with collusion, since provincial under-funding of universities is at the root of the problem. "Ontario's universities receive the lowest funding of all ten provinces, and none of them are well-funded," she says. Furthermore, "binding arbitration which will follow the back to work order requires the arbitrator to take into account the employer's ability to pay in making an award. This will ensure that the workers will be the losers. That's not free collective bargaining. It's union-busting."

     While marching to Queen's Park after a Jan. 27 rally at the Ministry of Labour, strikers were attacked by Toronto police. Four were arrested and charged with assaulting police. Office workers in the towers overlooking University Avenue in downtown Toronto rushed out to tell media that they had seen the police attack the strikers, not the other way around. Video of the attacks was also given to union leaders and their lawyers. 

     CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan said the union will challenging the back to work legislation. "There is no deadlock", he said, stating the union has been waiting to negotiate a collective agreement for 83 days, while the employer has refused to negotiate for weeks at a time. A forced vote on York's final offer was soundly rejected in mid-January, after which the employer flatly told the mediator they would refuse to meet the union for further negotiations.

     A successful challenge to the legislation would make it easier for unions like the Elementary Teachers and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union which are, or will be in difficult negotiations with the provincial government this year. 

     The Ontario NDP has opposed the back to work legislation, delaying passage of the Bill, extracting a promise from the Premier that he would pressure York President Shoukri to send York negotiators back to the bargaining table. 

     The Tories meanwhile are hysterical, attacking everyone for being "in bed" with the unions and casting themselves as protectors of 50,000 York students. 

     With the forces inside the Legislature so stacked against labour, the Communist Party is calling on the labour and democratic movements to gird for a major battle to defend basic labour and democratic rights.

     "It can't be fixed in the Legislature," said Rowley, "it will need the power of a mighty people's coalition to stop the economic and political bulldozer that's coming this way. Quality of life is about to be flattened across the province and across the country.  We need a coordinated fightback led by labour, and we need it now."