The Toronto Star September 19, 1997
HARRIS BOWS TO PRESSURE FROM UNIONS
"The Ontario Federation of Labour has assured
us that the retention of the right to strike would
not jeopardize public service or create instability."
-- Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer
Province to drop temporary ban on strikes in public sector
By Caroline Mallan Queen's Park Bureau
The Ontario government has moved to avert massive labour disruptions
by promising to back down on legislation that has infuriated public-sector
unions.
Union leaders said they will await concrete government action before
halting plans for rotating strikes beginning next week that could include
school janitors and administrative staff, hospital clerks and orderlies and
municipal workers including garbage collectors in various Ontario cities.
But the government, in an uncharacteristic reversal, appears to have
given the unions almost everything they demanded.
The key concession was a promise to drop plans to temporarily ban
strikes while amalgamations of municipalities, hospitals and school boards
are under way.
Gone from Bill 136 at union insistence as well will be two commissions
that were to sort out contract disputes and union jurisdictional fights during
amalgamations.
More than 450,000 public-sector workers are affected by the bill.
Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) president Gord Wilson has called a
meeting of union leaders today to decide whether to call off next week's
rotating job action. Labour leaders announced Wednesday that a series of
rotating strikes could come as early as Monday in Hamilton, London,
Windsor, Cornwall, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa. Metro Toronto wasn't
on the list.
Teachers' bill 'milder': Ian Urquhart's view
"I can't say what we are going to do until I know exactly what the hell
the minister was saying to us," Wilson said. "We are very cautious about
this."
Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer announced amendments to Bill 136 in
the Legislature yesterday, moments after Premier Mike Harris lashed out at
the unions for "fear mongering and hyperbole."
The legislation, which received approval in principle by MPPs yesterday,
will be amended during committee hearings before being passed at the end of
the month.
"The Ontario Federation of Labour has told us that the right to strike is
essential to free collective bargaining. And they have assured us that the
retention of the right to strike would not jeopardize public service or create
instability," Witmer told the Legislature.
But, Canadian Union of Public Employees' Ontario president Sid Ryan
told reporters yesterday that "this is a government I don't trust for two
seconds . . . and I want to see the details of what they have announced.
"We have to continue the mobilization until the government is willing to
sit down and explain to us what these changes actually mean," Ryan said.
"This coming week we have planned walkouts."
Leaders of Ontario's teachers' union were relieved to hear Witmer's
announcement. They expect that legislation that would affect their right to
strike will also be watered down when Education Minister John Snobelen
introduces it next week.
"It's amazing, I can't believe it," said Marshall Jarvis, president of the
Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association. "Nobody was ready for this
one."
The legislation as first written would have established a disputes resolution
commission that would have had the right to ban strikes during first
contract arbitration.
Witmer said "the OFL said there is no need or justification for the proposed"
commission so she announced that it would be scrapped, along with
another commission called the labour relations transition commission.
Witmer insisted that the changes were on the table during failed discussions
with union leaders last week and were not a knee-jerk reaction to calls
for strikes beginning next Monday.
"These were issues and amendments that we were going to be sharing
with the OFL, unfortunately they did not come back to the table," Witmer
said of talks from which union leaders walked away.
Most of the planned restructuring of municipalities, hospitals and school
boards is effective Jan. 1, 1998.
Harris, in his verbal attack on "union bosses" in the Legislature, said:
"We were willing to engage in a meaningful dialogue. . . . the union
leadership has chosen to engage in a war of rhetoric. We will not engage in
this old-style exercise."
Harris went on to say that this week's "flight of rhetoric" will not jeopardize
the changes that Witmer is willing to bring in in order to make Bill 136
more palatable to labour.
Witmer said she plans to use the existing arbitration process to settle
collective agreements and will empower the Ontario Labour Relations Board
to decide issues of union representation in the short term and seniority. She
will also allow a secret ballot vote on choice of union following a merger.
Witmer said after her announcement that she now expects labour leaders
to return to the bargaining table and to set aside job action for next week.
"I do believe that we have certainly endeavoured to be responsive to all
of the concerns of our stakeholders. . . . I don't anticipate that there's going
to be any strike."
And the OFL's Wilson said in an interview that he is ready to sit down
and talk to the government, instead of continuing to talk strike.
"On the face of it, it looks good. I'm concerned because all of this has
been so erratic," he said. "But now we've got to get the government to come
to the table and define what it is the minister is saying."
Wilson said he remains cautious since some of the wording in Witmer's
announcement is vague, but he added that he is willing to hear the
government out and labour leaders are to meet this morning to review the
changes.
Witmer also said she has assurances from Ryan and others that unions
affected by mergers will not strike during the amalgamation process as a
gesture of good faith.
"Mr. Ryan again today stressed the fact that he felt that he could guarantee
there would be no strikes during the period of restructuring and merger."
Ryan countered that the guarantee only applies if employers do not try to
take advantage of the situation to roll back wages and gut collective
agreements.
Judy Darcy, CUPE's national president, said she too cannot call off strike
action until she is assured that the changes are not a "PR exercise."
Witmer's changes fell far short of satisfying the Association of Municipalities
of Ontario (AMO) and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), both
of which had requested legislation to handle possible labour problems during
amalgamations.
