BY ROBERT SIMMS
WINDSOR, Ontario - At an October 22 press conference the 126,000-member Ontario Teachers' Federation announced that a province-wide teachers' strike will begin October 27 unless the Conservative government of Premier Michael Harris drops major provisions of Bill 160, a law that the teachers have labeled as a "smokescreen" for massive cuts to the education system -including the firing of up to 10,000 teachers.

The strike, which the government has branded as "illegal," comes on the heals of a massive show of union power that effectively shut down the city of Windsor, October 17, in protest against the antiunion austerity drive of the government.

Bill 160 and the potential for a large-scale confrontation was a major theme of the Windsor Day of Action. The job action was embraced by more than 30,000 workers in this city of 200,000, who shut down 90 percent of the 200 unionized workplaces. It was the ninth city-wide protest organized by the labor movement in this province since 1995.

The action closed the city's main auto plants - a Chrysler minivan assembly plant, five Ford engine and casting operations, and one General Motors transmission factory, employing a total of 12,000 workers. Most of the auto parts plants in the city closed. Also shut down were the transit system, postal service, City Hall, other municipal services, and the Casino Windsor, which is organized by the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW).

Most companies posted voluntary shutdown notices, but GM had threatened to fine workers $2,500 each for the lost day of production. The few GM workers who showed up to work did not cross the picket line.

Picket lines went up at the GM plant before midnight and by 6:00 a.m. about 150 pickets blocked the main entrance. Those on the line came from CAW Local 2027 at the Hiram Walker Distillery and from the Windsor Star newspaper. Two busloads from CAW Local 1286 at Chrysler's Bramalea assembly plant near Toronto arrived to swell the line and successfully block the few potential entrants, including the office workers who arrived about 8:00 a.m.

`We aren't backing down'
One the pickets at GM was Gino Loduca from CAW Local 2027, who has worked for 18 years as a carpenter at the Hiram Walker facility. "We have to fight to defend our health-care system. We can't let them touch education. We aren't backing down and the government knows it," he told the Militant.

Although Chrysler had acknowledged to its workforce before the action that it would close, Othmar Stein, vice president of public relations for Chrysler Canada told the Toronto Star that the company didn't decide to close down, it was "shut down."

"When your 6,000 employees say they are going to strike illegally, what can you do?" he complained.

GM spokesperson Greg Gibson told the press after the action that GM hasn't decided if it will follow up its fine threat.

The Day of Action affected shipping and trade between industries in Canada and the United States. The Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit tunnel are important border- crossings for trade between the two countries, handling 30 percent of the US$290 billion yearly Canada-U.S. trade.

Pickets and marchers closed both intermittently between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Moreover, many firms had not scheduled to ship things that day. "It's been a very light Friday," said Skip McMahon, manager of the Ambassador Bridge, which normally handles 10,000 trucks a day.

The Day of Action also featured a rally in downtown Windsor. An estimated 15,000 - 20,000 auto workers, municipal workers, steelworkers, teamsters, nurses, teachers, other unionists, and students took part. The large majority were either members of the CAW or among the 4,000 teachers in Essex County where Windsor is located. The central slogan of the teachers' fight across the province, "We won't back down!," was picked up by marchers and featured in a song at the rally.

"If Bill 160 passes, extra-curricular activities will be cut in half and all scholarships will be thrown out the window. I'm very mad," Stephanie Robert , a grade 10 student at Forrester High School told the Militant.

"Fighting back does work," Ontario Federation of Labour president Gordon Wilson told the rally in a park bordering the Detroit river. He and other speakers urged picket line support for the teachers if the government forces them to strike.  
 
 
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