BY MARY ELLEN MARUS
HAMILTON, Ontario - In one of the largest working-class protests in Canadian history, at least 100,000 people marched through the streets of this predominantly industrial city on Saturday, February 24. They waved union flags and placards, singing and shouting chants opposing the provincial government's austerity package.
Ontario premier Michael Harris has threatened layoffs of tens of thousands of public employees and cuts in social programs - including education, child care, health care, welfare, and workers' compensation.
The Saturday demonstration overshadowed the 25,000-strong rally here the day before, which was nevertheless much larger than the December 11 labor demonstration of 15,000 in London, Ontario.
"I love this," said John Fidalgo, a pipe fitter, who was watching the Friday march with other construction workers waiting for their contingent to arrive. "But we have to go farther. We have to have a general strike to shut down the province, at least for one day." He said that construction workers have been hit hard by government cuts and that the Tories (the conservative governing party) "are out to destroy the unions."
The Ontario Federation of Labour has vowed to hold similar actions in one city after another, laying the basis for a province-wide protest against the government's attacks on working people.
Speaking at a Conservative Party policy conference in Hamilton the same weekend, the Ontario premier claimed his government was not going to back down. "Outside today there are a few people who are trying to shake our resolve," Harris said. "No special interest group or lobby will stop us. No union-led demonstration will deter us." Hundreds of heavily armed riot cops lined the halls, guarding the ballroom where Harris spoke.
Meanwhile the protest movement gained momentum as 55,000 government workers, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), went on strike at midnight Sunday, February 25, following the labor march.
Workers are protesting government threats to lay off between 13,000 and 27,000 public employees, in many cases contracting out their jobs to private companies. New bills passed by the provincial legislature deny these unionists the same job protection and pension rights as other workers.
Under the new labor law, Bill 7, "successor rights" have been abolished. As a result government workers will no longer have a right to jobs that are privatized by the government. Moreover, if they are offered jobs with the private company, they will no longer be guaranteed union protection or their previous wage rate. Government officials argue that the ability to pay lower wages is key to attracting businesses to bid on the purchase of social services.
The laid-off workers will also lose existing pension rights. Under Ontario law, people who lose their jobs as a result of a major reduction in the workforce can, in most cases, continue to earn pension credits until retirement age. Bill 26, the government's omnibus legislation, specifically exempted Ontario government workers from such protection.
In addition, Bill 7 abolished Ontario's anti-scab legislation. The government now has the legal right to use replacement workers in an effort to break a walkout.
The key issue in the current OPSEU strike is the fight for jobs and union rights. At the Hamilton action hundreds of protesters chanted the OPSEU slogan, "No justice, No peace!"
1,400 buses pour into Hamilton
As many as 1,400 buses from across the province brought
supporters into Hamilton, known as Steeltown, located in the
industrial belt in southern Ontario just west of Toronto. The
crowd on February 24 was made up mostly of union members. But
substantial numbers of unemployed and unorganized workers,
students, activists in a variety of social protest groups,
and others joined in. Many workers brought their entire
families to the mobilization.
The largest group were teachers, with 650 buses bringing members from all six teachers' unions. One busload of teachers left Blind River in northern Ontario at 2:00 a.m. to get to the rally, while another 15 buses traveled seven hours from Ottawa. Many teachers said that the $400 million worth of education cuts that the Tory government is trying to impose will wreak havoc on the school system.
"I'm at the lowest salary range," said a grade-two teacher, "and I spend half my salary on supplies for the students since the school doesn't provide books and the government says we're overpaid!" The cuts would increase her class size from 25 to 45, she stated.
Hundreds of teachers and high school students joined the protest the day before. "We're tired of being stepped on," said Jackie Turk, from the University of Guelph.
Tulula, a grade-nine student from Harbord Collegiate in Toronto, said, "I don't think it's fair that our future should be decided in the government boardrooms while our classes are growing bigger and bigger and education is getting poorer and poorer."
Some 500 nurses joined the two-day protest. Kathy Smith, an official for the Ontario Nurses Association, said many nurses are concerned "not about jobs, but about patient care."
The Friday protest paralyzed services, shut down the transportation system, and idled thousands of workers. Apart from demonstrators, downtown Hamilton was like a ghost town.
While 25,000 demonstrated, 3,000 pickets shut down plants and offices across the region. Major companies like Westinghouse, Wabco, and Hickson-Lang were forced to close as workers refused to cross the picket lines set up by other unionists. Camco, a large appliance maker, shut down at midnight when its 850 employees decided not to cross the picket line.
At National Steel Car so many of the 3,000 workers asked for the day off the company was forced to close. Workers at the big Stelco steelworks negotiated a union holiday to ensure the plant did not function on February 23. The Canadian Auto Workers shut 15 plants. The protest stopped mail delivery in the region as picket lines at the huge Stoney Creek sorting center kept workers out.
BY ROGER ANNIS
BATHURST, New Brunswick - Chanting "Solidarity, justice,
dignity" and "Jobs, not cuts," 2,500 workers marched through
this small city on February 25 to protest proposed cuts to
unemployment insurance by the Canadian government.
"We refuse to accept these cuts," said paperworker Edouard Lévesque from the neighboring town of Dalhousie. "The industries in this area have cut so many jobs lately, how are we going to survive?"
"What we want is jobs," said Jean-Guy Savoie, a construction worker now enrolled in a retraining course in Bathurst. "We wouldn't need unemployment insurance if the government and the companies did something to create jobs." This was a view expressed by many protesters.
Most demonstrators came from across northern New Brunswick. Many were Acadians, a French-speaking oppressed nationality who make up the majority of the population in that part of the province.
The march was the latest action of a movement against unemployment insurance cuts that is spreading across the Gaspe region of Quebec and the four provinces of Atlantic Canada. The most recent rallies drew more than 2,500 on February 5 in Tracardie, near Bathurst; some 3,000 across Gaspe February 9; 2,000 in St. John's, Newfoundland, and 500 in Souris, Prince Edward Island, February 12; and 5,000 on February 18 in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Many protesters here were fresh from rallies two days earlier in nearby Kedgwick, St. Quentin, and Edmundston that drew nearly 2,000 people.
The proposed cuts will hurt more some of the most vulnerable workers in Canada, namely those working in seasonal industries. In eastern Quebec and Atlantic Canada, several main industries are seasonal. They include fishing, logging, construction, agriculture, and tourism. Only one in four of those employed in northern New Brunswick has a year- round job.
The recently announced cuts, if implemented, would follow two previous rounds in 1990 and 1993 that have reduced benefit payments by billions of dollars. As a result, last year only 35 percent of the unemployed in Ontario - Canada's most industrialized province - received jobless benefits, compared to 68 percent in 1991.
The current protests are the first sustained actions against unemployment insurance reductions. Capitalist politicians and big business in New Brunswick have launched attacks against the movement, labeling organizers as "professional agitators."
But the mobilizations continue. Another protest is planned in the Restigouche region of northern New Brunswick in the coming weeks. "We will bring together coalitions in New Brunswick and the Gaspe for this one," said Florian Lévesque in an interview. He is with the group called Future Homeless of Restigouche.
"This rally will be about unity," he stated. "We will bring together Acadians and anglophones from New Brunswick, Quebecois from Gaspe, and Native Indians. The government tries to divide us. We have to unite."
Roger Annis is a member of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 841 in Montreal.