Conservative governments around the world are attacking public education, opening profitable opportunities to the private sector. As part of these attacks they aim to weaken the teachers’ unions, which are the most important defenders of public education. The conservative government of Ontario, led by Premier Doug Ford (the brother of infamous Toronto mayor Rob Ford) is currently leading the attack in Canada.
Education cuts intended to boost student “Resilience”
In the spring of 2019 the Ford government announced its plans to cut education. The most blatant attack was to increase average class size from 22 students to 28, which could mean classes up to 35 to 40 students. This would lead to a reduction of around 10,054 teaching jobs over five years. Incredibly, the Education Minister, Lisa Thompson, claimed that the increase in class size would boost student “resilience” so that they will be prepared for “the real world.” “When students are currently preparing to go off to post-secondary education, we’re hearing from professors and employers alike that they’re lacking coping skills and they’re lacking resiliency.”
In addition, the government wanted to would make it compulsory for high school students to take a minimum of four online courses. This was not about increasing computer skills, but cutting jobs.
Over the last year opposition from teachers, students and parents has grown. Friday, February 21, saw the biggest show of united action by Ontario teachers since 1997. All 4 unions (elementary, secondary, Catholic and French) representing 160,000 teachers, in a one day strike closed down schools that affected 2 million students. In Toronto, an estimated 30,000 teachers, education workers, parents and students set up a march which effectively encircled the legislative building. In Peel region (Mississauga, just west of Toronto) roughly 20,000 picketed along a 30 kilometre stretch of road in what many are claiming to be the longest picket line ever (Guinness World Book of records has been notified!)
Successful one-day strikes
It was a powerful demonstration of educators’ resolve and union strength that had been some time coming. All the unions had been in a legal strike position since mid-December 2019. All four unions had huge strike majorities: secondary school teachers (OSSTF) voted 95.5% in favour of a strike, Catholic and French language teachers by 97%, and elementary teachers by 98%.
Each union has been engaged in a salami tactic that combined rotating regional one day strikes with full-out one day strikes of their membership across Ontario. In terms of getting public support, building solidarity and a sense of oneness among the teachers, the one day strikes have been successful. A Facebook comment from one union activist:
“This day was excellent. The resolve was phenomenal. The staff at my school are PUMPED. They know the issues, they are informed, they are ready to talk to the media, to parents. Our admin were on the line with us at different points. Our CUPE support staff brought us water, coffee, snacks, donuts. We had musical instruments, we had homemade signs, we had hand warmers, and tarps for our bags, lawn chairs for breaks, and in 4 hours [only]one middle finger, one shaken head, and one thumb down. The rest was so, so much love. “Today was worthwhile. We had teachers, retired teachers, who wore their “classic” OSSTF hats, who were on strike for 37 days in 1975 come and visit us and tell us to hang in there and that our fight is important. It is. This is a day we needed. It was awesome. I find it hard to believe that NOTHING will come of this. The will for the fight is getting stronger, and so is the support from the public.”
Over months, a head of steam built up among teachers and education workers in response to the government’s cuts to funding per pupil leading to the elimination of jobs. Education Minister Steven Lecce has claimed that the government is spending more on education than any government previously, yet independent calculations have shown the government’s education spending per-pupil for 2019–20 is $54 lower than in the previous year.
Huge public support
Over the summer of 2019 and during Canada’s federal election, it was clear that Ford’s popularity had plummeted dramatically. Faced with this situation, Ford and his Education Minister have back-pedalled on some of the most extreme positions. Despite the backtracking and “concessions”, the government is losing the war for hearts and minds, i.e. public opinion. Lecce has acknowledged that the government spent “just shy” of $1 million consulting parents about its changes to public education, including its planned class size increases. But, when asked what response the government received, the minister declined to comment. He said only that releasing the data could “directly impinge our negotiating position” at the bargaining table. According to a recent poll, only 11% of Ontarians support larger class sizes. And on the streets, the massive honking of horns, the thumbs up and the supportive conversations demonstrate that the public support is real.
The public outrage pushed the Ford government to soften its proposal to increase class size to 25 students, from its initial 28. However, researchers noted that this would still remove about 6,000 teaching positions from Ontario’s schools, over several years. This slashing of teaching jobs and increasing of class sizes would obviously have a negative impact on students’ learning.
Another contentious issue was that of mandatory on-line courses for High School students. Originally, the government proposed 4 classes (4 times more than any other North American jurisdiction having mandatory e-courses). It is clear that the introduction of this type of course was for cost cutting reasons, especially if class caps were removed, requiring fewer teachers. During negotiations, again following public and union pressure, the government has reduced its target to 2 mandatory classes.
For elementary teachers the issues are preserving full day kindergarten and addressing the question of student violence in the classroom. The latter is something that elementary teachers are experiencing more and more on a daily basis. Elementary teachers talk of being been kicked, punched, stabbed with a pencil, spat on, hit with a chair and more. Obviously an investment in human resources (more classroom assistants) is required to deal with this.
Compensation is the final sticking point for all teachers even if it has been downplayed by the unions and teachers in order to not give the impression that the dispute is all about money which is true — it is about the quality of education and serving the needs of students. The unions are arguing for a 2% increase, keeping pace with the cost of living, to compensate for pay having fallen around 8% behind the rate of inflation over the past 7 years. The government position is that other public sector wage increases have been capped at 1%. Naturally, they don’t want to make an exception for teachers.
Government attempt “divide and rule”
The government has been trying to divide teachers from the union leaders claiming that the latter are not representative of ordinary teachers. On the occasion of the mass demonstrations of February 21, OSSTF president Harvey Bischof, declared “This is a demonstration of unity. It’s a demonstration that we’re not divided from our members or from the public in this province.” Backing this up, a teacher on the 30km picket line told Global News: “I think the lack of negotiations is on the government side. I know I have full trust in our unions that they are doing everything. We have given them the mandate to strike and to do everything they need to do to preserve public education in Ontario.”
Not only have Ford and Education Minister Lecce tried to drive a wedge between the union leadership and regular teachers, they have also tried get the public on the government’s side by portraying teachers as looking out only for themselves and not the students (“they’re only interested in getting a 2% pay hike”). In addition, the government, in mid-January, offered a payment (many parents called it a bribe) of up to $60 a day for when strike actions closed schools or school-based child care centres. Note that the financing of these payments comes from unpaid wages to the striking teachers.
A parent on twitter commented, “So, let’s just get this straight. We don’t want to pay Ontario teachers the 2% they are asking, BUT we are fine spending $60 a day for everyone who puts their kids in child care. Roughly 2 million students in Ontario. So even a one day strike could cost $130,000,000.” Another twitter comment: “The Ford Government paid $25,000,000 today in childcare bribe money. They could have paid for 961 Educational Assistants for A FULL YEAR with that money! Imagine how many children would benefit from an E.A.’s one on one attention and support.”
But the question is posed — if the members have given the leaders the mandate to strike, what is the best way to pursue that mandate? The first rotating one-day strike came in mid-December. Ten weeks later, with several more of these same type of strikes completed and despite having solid support from the public, there is no evidence of the government blinking. As Peel OSSTF activist Zain Ghiadally commented, “Back to work legislation is a concern for members but at some point it will require a complete withdrawal of labour for a prolonged period.”
Indefinite strike needed
If the unions are going to successfully deal with this issue, it is essential that they have a co-ordinated strategy. But even a consolidated and integrated union action may not be enough as the 1997 political protest against the Mike Harris government demonstrated. Since the first regional one day strike of December by the high school teachers, there has certainly been more co-ordinated and wider actions and the union leaders are to be congratulated for that. The one day strikes of the different unions has kept the pressure up, has raised the confidence of the rank and file, and has not led to an erosion of public support. But can this strategy last indefinitely? It’s quite possible, given the mood of teachers and the support of the public, that the government will blink first. However, the other side of the picture is that it will need some further prodding, in the form of an all out indefinite strike, to make the government blink.
The teachers’ unions should prepare for the government to bring in back to work legislation in the event of an all out strike. It would be useful to look at the preparations that the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation made for its 2005 strike . The first step was to prepare, inform and mobilize the membership and then extensive outreach to parents. With a solid base of support, the BCTF approached the BC Federation of Labour for solidarity action, which was forthcoming. This allowed the teachers to successfully defy a court injunction instructing them to go back to work. The Ontario teachers’ unions should start preparing for back to work legislation and how to fight it. This requires a clear strategy for victory involving teachers, students and parents and commitments from the Ontario Federation of Labour for wider labour movement solidarity action.
The teachers are fighting a just cause and they have the public on their side. Using a bold and astute strategy, they could be making a major stand in defence of public education while, at the same time, inflicting a fatal blow on the Ford government.
