The members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4400 walked out March 31. They are employed by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Their ranks include school janitors, teachers of English as a second language, secretaries and hall monitors, classroom teachers' assistants, and special education teachers. Under the same legislation, Windsor school support workers were also ordered back to work.
These workers are the lowest paid in the education sector, making a yearly wage of Can$22,000 to $25,000 (Can$1=US 64 cents). Their wages have been effectively frozen for the past eight years.
Negotiators strike deal
The back-to-work law was introduced in the legislature on April 25. In the following two days before it was passed, the TDSB and CUPE negotiators reached a deal incorporating issues on which agreement had been reached, and mandating binding arbitration on issues that have not been resolved. The latter include wages and job security questions.
The Tory government ignored this development. Labor Minister Christopher Stockwell called the agreement too little too late, and forged ahead to pass the law.
Many strikers fear that the government-appointed arbitrator will reopen all issues and fashion a binding contract that wipes out some bargaining gains.
During the strike CUPE members organized two mass rallies. On April 19 some 2,000 strikers demonstrated outside the headquarters of the school board. A demonstration of roughly the same size was held April 25, just hours after the Tory back-to-work law was introduced into the legislature. For several weeks the union organized daily pickets of 500-1,000 strikers and supporters at 12 different high schools on a rotating basis.
On April 23 the TDSB shut down all the schools, citing potential health hazards posed by uncleaned toilets and mounds of garbage that had built up over three weeks. By this stage some 300,000 students were affected.
At a membership meeting April 29, the day before work was to resume, union leaders set out plans for workers to organize information pickets at their schools at 8:00 a.m. the next day. Teachers and parents were invited to join the actions. "Choose the best time for everyone to enter the school together," advised a Local 4400 organizing leaflet.
It is quite possible that many, if not most schools will not be cleaned adequately to allow classes to resume for one or two days.
Krishna Persaud, who teaches at the Bickford Centre, which specializes in adult education and offers literacy courses and studies in English as a second language, told the Militant that "the strike was a good experience. We showed the board we could stay together for four weeks. Morale was good. The struggle will go on."
Another striker working as a classroom teaching assistant at Westview Centennial Secondary affirmed that the strike had a positive impact. "The teachers supported us. It hurts in the pocketbook but you have to stand up or the problems get worse."