BY ROBERT SIMMS AND VICKY MARSHAL
TORONTO - After dealing a blow to the provincial government's austerity campaign by garnering widespread support for their fight, 126,000 Ontario teachers returned to work November 10 after union leaders called off their work stoppage. The protest strike against education cutbacks began October 27.

On November 6, some 22,000 students, teachers, and parents rallied in front of the Ontario legislature in Toronto, in a demonstration organized by the Ontario Teachers' Federation.

Hours afterwards, leaders of the Federation of Women Teachers of Ontario, the Ontario Public School Teachers Federation, and the Franco-Ontarian Teachers Association announced that the members of those unions would return to work on November 10.

The teachers had walked off the job against Bill 160. This proposed legislation would give the Ontario government, presently headed by Conservative premier Michael Harris, arbitrary powers to set working conditions such as class size and preparation time, more easily cut thousands of teaching jobs, and slash hundreds of millions of dollars from education.

Momentum had been swinging solidly behind the teachers in the wake of the November 3 refusal by Ontario judge James MacPherson to grant the Ontario government an injunction ending the strike. The day after the judge's decision, a poll commissioned by and published in the right-wing daily Toronto Star showed that 59 percent of Toronto-area parents supported the teachers in their struggle. This level was higher than before the strike began.

Toronto Catholic School teacher Sean Gorman told the Globe and Mail during the strike that public support was incredible. "We have three picket shifts at the school and we get six dozen donuts a shift," he declared.

Teachers' unity remained strong during the walkout. The Metro Toronto Separate School Board, for example, asked teachers who didn't want to strike to work at the Catholic Education Center. Of the board's 5,927 teachers, no more than 124 did so.

The announcement by union officials calling off the strike sparked outrage from a large layer of elementary school teachers. Some 2,800 elementary school teachers from the Toronto Teachers' Federation met November 7 and demanded their own vote on whether to return to class. They organized a meeting for two days later to take such a vote.

"A moral victory isn't enough," one teacher told a Globe and Mail reporter, when rumors began appearing in the press that union tops might be wavering. "I didn't give up two weeks' pay for a moral victory. We have come this far, we are in a position where we can effect some change, with the help of other unions." The need for visible support from other unions was a common comment given to strike supporters who visited the teachers' picket lines.

About 15,000 teachers and supporters from as far away as Windsor, Thunder Bay, and Kitchener-Waterloo rallied in front of the legislature November 8. The action was supported by unions in the Ontario Federation of Labor (OFL).

Modest contingents from OFL unions such as the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the United Steelworkers of America, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) were present.

Jim Lee, a CAW member from the Pillette truck assembly plant in Windsor, said seven buses were organized by CAW Local 444 there to attend the rally. "At the plant, we're firmly behind the teachers. I think they did the right thing walking out," said Lee.

Anne Blackshaw, a member of the Federation of Women Teachers from Waterloo, told the Militant, "We may be returning back to school, but we will continue the fight."

Moments after the end of the November 8 rally, leaders of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association decided to call off the strike. The next day officials of the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's' Federation also urged their members to return to work. Faced with these developments, the Toronto elementary school teachers voted to go back as well.

Commenting on the outcome of the strike, Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom wrote, "In a broader political sense, the teachers triumphed they threw [the government's] entire education agenda into sharp relief. [T]hose who have lost most are the Harris Tories. From this, the teachers can take grim satisfaction."  
 
 
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