Canada, Common Cause Linchpin, March April 2013 - Which Way Forward for Ontario Teachers? by RICHARD R, Hamilton

It has been over a month since the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) held their one-day 
protest of the provincial Liberal Party leadership convention, mobilizing some 15,000 
people on the streets of Toronto and then sending them all home again around 4:00pm. --- 
The protest was part of the trade union response to Bill 115, which enabled the provincial 
government to circumvent collective bargaining and mandate the terms of new ?collective 
agreements?. Within the bill were draconian provisions for any attempt to challenge the 
legislation, through the courts or in the workplace. ---- It is worth noting that while 
the union leadership were pushing for this day of action, they were also cynically hedging 
their bets in the form of thousands of dollars in union dues being funnelled into 
contributions to Liberal leadership candidates.

In one case $10,000 was donated to Eric Hoskins, a leadership contender who had in fact 
voted in favour of Bill 115.

After their preferred ?social justice? candidate
Kathleen Wynne won the Liberal nomination it seems
that the Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation
(OSSTF) leadership thought the time was right for a
rapprochement. On Friday February 22, members
were surprised to hear that their union had advised
them to resume extra-curricular activities. This was
not in response to any good faith offer by the province.
I?ve never sat at a bargaining table, but it strikes me
that giving up something for nothing is a pretty poor
strategy. Members were not consulted in advance of
this recommendation and had to spend the weekend
in suspense, awaiting a press conference the following
Monday, some venting their frustrations over a
Facebook group called ?We ARE the Front Lines In
Education?. The decision by the OSSTF also breaks
solidarity with the Elemantary Teachers Federation of
Ontario (ETFO) who have continued their abstention
from extra-curriculars. This allows an opportunistic
press to play the ?good? teachers in the OSSTF and
OECTA (Catholic teachers who were the fist to submit
to the province) against the quarrelsome rebels in the
ETFO. We have seen just that in the editorial pages of
the Globe, Star and Sun.
Community groups, who mobilized in support of all
education workers throughout January and supported
the union?s day of action have been left hanging
without an effective escalation path or any visible
means of advancing the struggle. Worker militancy is
not a tap that union leadership can simply turn on and
off whenever it suits their negotiation strategy. If you
mobilize tens of thousands of people and proceed to
lead them ineptly and achieve nothing, its likely that
less of them will volunteer to participate in future.
It is demoralizing, and it burns out organizers to no
purpose. It must be reversed.
If similar anti-labour legislation is to be stopped,
unions must be willing to defy unjust legislation and be
seen to be doing so. To do otherwise is posturing and
this has been shown time and again to be insufficient.
Work currently being undertaken by groups like the
Rank and File Education Workers of Toronto, such as
canvassing in working class neighbourhoods, show
potential for broadening the struggle and taking the
power out of the hands of politicians and bureaucrats.
The task for militant rank and file workers in this
situation is to build on this work and find ways to move
forward without and in spite of union leadership, and
make possible mass defiance of laws like Bill 115.