The Ontario government’s unprecedented use of the Constitution clause in a labor dispute with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had the unintended effect of bringing together Canada’s largest and most prominent unions – some of which were at odds with each other over years. Labor watchers say this show of unity among unions is rare, but the direct result of Prime Minister Doug Ford’s government’s invocation of a bill that, at its core, threatened the most basic tenets of unionism — the right to collective bargaining. . On Monday, CUPE leaders gathered with the heads of more than 20 unions and labor federations in Toronto to announce that Ontario education workers would return to work in response to Mr. Ford’s pledge to repeal Bill 28 — a controversial bill that effectively canceled the ability of CUPE education workers to strike. CUPE and Doug Ford walk away from their labor dispute. Now what? Latest updates on Bill 28 Among the organizations present were Unifor, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the Canadian Labor Congress (CLC) and a number of construction unions that endorsed the Ford government in last June’s provincial election. “What we saw on Monday was extremely rare,” explained Robert Hickey, professor of industrial relations at Queen’s University. “Like any democratic organization, unions have disagreements with each other and with central institutions. But to come together like this in such a short period of time was symbolic of the seriousness of the threat that the labor movement saw Bill 28 to be.” After the Ford government invoked the use of an extension clause in its back-to-work legislation as an attempt to force CUPE into a new collective agreement for 55,000 non-striking education workers, there was an outpouring of support from unions across the country . for CUPE and its members. Rallies organized by CUPE in Toronto over the weekend were attended by many members of private sector unions such as Unifor, UFCW, teachers unions and Ontario building trade unions. The BC Teachers’ Federation has pledged to donate $1 million to CUPE in the event its members are fined by the Ford government for taking part in what the government called an illegal strike. Unifor pledged $100,000. By Sunday afternoon, there was talk of a general strike – that major Canadian unions would call on Ontario workers to strike on November 14th to protest Bill 28 and to support CUPE education workers. “Just seven days ago, nobody was talking about a general strike. It’s almost like Doug Ford’s use of the extension clause put a bear into hibernation,” said Larry Savage, professor of labor studies at Brock University. Dr. Savage believes that by refusing to negotiate and forcing a settlement on CUPE as the union tried to negotiate the wages of teaching assistants and school support staff, the Ford government managed to bring together a previously internally divided labor movement. “It was a reaction that the government did not expect. And it built so quickly among the unions, also out of fear that what happened to CUPE could happen to them at the bargaining table,” Dr Savage explained. CUPE president Mark Hancock speaks at a press conference in Toronto alongside leaders of more than 20 unions and labor federations on November 7. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press The last time unions were so closely united against the government was in the late 1990s, when a series of strikes, dubbed “Days of Action,” were organized by private and public sector unions to protest austerity measures imposed by the then premier of Ontario. Progressive Conservative Mike Harris. While private sector unions such as the United Steelworkers often disagreed with their public sector counterparts over the strategies and goals of Days of Action, these unions received massive support from their members to participate in multiple demonstrations and protests , which featured crosses -thrown into each other’s workplaces. Craig Heron, a labor historian and professor emeritus at York University, noted that in the Canadian industrial relations system, general strikes are rare because there are legal restrictions on their organization. Unions and their members are bound by contracts with employers and are not allowed to take support strikes – strikes not linked to their own grievances, but in support of another group of workers. “This time, however, something quite dramatic happened,” Professor Heron said. “The very fact that there was talk of a general strike was a combination of many things – a feeling among the unions that a prime minister who had campaigned for the little man was now turning around and attacking the weakest group of workers in the education sector and that then this legislation could be used against all unions,” he added. At CUPE’s press conference on Monday, newly elected Unifor president Lana Payne stood alongside Bea Bruske, president of the CLC, and both voiced their support for CUPE’s education workers. Unifor famously withdrew from the CLC in 2018, having accused the organization of not having an effective process to allow workers to switch unions. The CLC, in turn, accused Unifor of raiding another union for members. But in times of extreme crisis, Canadian unions have proven to put aside their differences and come together, says Rafael Gomez, a professor of labor relations at the University of Toronto. “The Ford administration’s miscalculation was not to understand that there is a precedent for the labor movement to come together in a situation where governments cross the Rubicon, such as when they invoke heavy legislation.” For Stephanie Ross, an associate professor of labor studies at McMaster University and the author of several books on the Canadian labor movement, this newfound unity displayed by labor leaders could be the harbinger of rebuilding relations between different factions. “In one fell swoop, the Ford administration did what the unions themselves had failed to do for decades. This was definitely a wake-up call to unions that you can really affect change when you get your act together.”
