The Mental Pretzel

Tyranny is fine only when Justin does it:

The Ford government invoked the clause in back-to-work legislation passed last week that imposed a new contract on 55,000 education workers. The use of the clause sparked criticism from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others who accused the Ford government of trampling on workers’ rights.

Facing the prospect of mass labour disruptions, Ford announced Monday that he was willing to repeal the legislation if the union agreed to go back to the bargaining table.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees later said it would end a walkout that closed hundreds of schools for two days. Many school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, said they would reopen Tuesday for in-person learning.

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But Ford insisted it is within the province’s right to use the clause, and that if Trudeau doesn’t like it, he can call a first ministers’ meeting to talk about changing to the Constitution.

“If the prime minister wants to sit down and have a constitutional conversation with all the premiers, I can assure you, all the premiers will be there to talk about the constitutional changes,” Ford said, adding: “I’d highly recommend not to.”

You didn't like when Justin stabbed you in the back, did you, Doug?

Let's go back a bit.

Canada's Bill of Rights was replaced with Pierre Trudeau's government and defense lawyer-friendly Charter of Rights and Freedoms which Quebec never signed and which has an over-ride clause, that being the Notwithstanding Clause.

Which Doug Ford tried using against "educators":

If there is one constant in the inability for both sides to come together, it’s CUPE and their demands. Until last week, the union refused to move at all on their ridiculous wage demands of annual 11.7% wage increases.

Beyond that, here are some of the things CUPE is demanding for their members.

They are demanding that all 10-month employees – that’s 65% of the CUPE school employee membership – get five paid days before school starts. They want the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to be declared a statutory holiday in the contract so that members would be paid double time.

Currently, many educational assistants only work six hours per day; they want that made into seven hours paid per day to make them full-time workers.

They want parental leave paid out at 100% of salary/wages for eight weeks before the EI program kicks in. The union is also demanding an increase to paid vacation, paid professional development days and many other benefits that will drive up the cost of education without improving the experience of students in the classroom one bit.

Let’s be blunt, CUPE mostly represents part-time workers who work just part of the year. That is the job, that is situation that they knew going in. As I have already detailed in previous columns, these jobs paid a good hourly wage.

Educational assistants at the Ottawa Catholic School Board make hourly wages between $26 and $28, while their counterparts at the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board earn between $25 and $28 per hour. At the Hamilton Catholic board , education assistants earn hourly pay of between $23 and $26.

It’s these workers who CUPE has put front and centre in this strike and fight with the province, claiming they’re poorly paid. Find me anyone who can earn that kind of hourly wage, have 131 sick days per year, a benefits program second to none and be enrolled in either the OMERS or Teachers defined benefit pension plan.

Those types of jobs, with that level of compensation through pay and benefits, simply don’t exist outside of school boards.

I’ve heard very few people argue that these workers don’t deserve a raise, even the government has stated that much, offering the biggest wage increase that these workers have seen in a decade, and CUPE is scoffing at it.

Could the offer be higher than 2.5%? Sure, and I said last week that if CUPE had counter-offered instead of continuing to threaten a strike, they likely would have gotten a higher offer.

But the 11.7% annual wage increase, or even the reduced ask of a 6% annual hike is more than the government can pay, more than any other union is getting in Canada and unfair to the taxpayers who have to foot the bill.

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A poll of 557 randomly selected Ontario adults, conducted by Maru Public Opinion Nov. 7-8, shows some interesting responses. Fully 87% of respondents said that they were aware of the dispute, with 50% saying they were very aware, 37% saying somewhat aware.

Based on what you know, who do you support—the provincial government
or the union?

• Provincial government 41%
• Union 59%

Then came a series of statements following this question: Based on how you feel, choose which column the statement is best applied at the current moment in the dispute?

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Cares most about students returning to the classroom:

• Provincial government 31%
•  Union 26%
•  Both 23%
• Neither 20%

So, Canadians - who haven't been paying attention and are loathe to admit that the execrable Charter of "Rights" is nothing like what the Americans have - refuse to see Justin's iron-fisted approach to the politically embarrassing convoy is nothing like what Doug Ford barely did.

Interesting.