back-to-work – mackaycartoons

Tuesday May 26, 2015

May 25, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 26, 2015

Wynne Government imposes back-to-work legislation on striking teachers

The Ontario government will be tabling back-to-work legislation today for striking secondary school teachers, but since New Democrats won’t be supporting it, students will be kept from class a few more days.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her party won’t support the Liberals’ motion for unanimous consent to get it passed today, but the government could use its majority to pass it by Thursday.

That would mean more than 70,000 students in the Sudbury-area Rainbow District, Peel Region and Durham Region, who have been kept from class for up to five weeks, would return to school on Friday at the earliest.

The back-to-work legislation is being introduced after the Education Relations Commission ruled that strikes by high school teachers in three boards are putting students’ school years in jeopardy.

Education Minister Liz Sandals says she respects the collective bargaining process, but it’s important to get kids back to class to complete their school years.

While the striking secondary teachers in three boards are set to be legislated back to work, their central union said this weekend that talks with the provincial government have reached an impasse.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation plans to apply to the provincial labour ministry for conciliation — the teachers must first use the government third-party assistance to try to reach a contract before they can take provincewide strike action.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board had also been set to rule on whether the three local strikes were illegal.

This is the first round of negotiations under a new bargaining system the Liberal government introduced last year, separating the process into local and central talks. The school boards argued that the three local strikes were really on central issues such as class sizes. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Monday September 3, 2012

September 3, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday September 3, 2012

Thousands take to Toronto streets

It may look like your typical parade — marchers marching, flags flying and pipers piping — but Toronto’s annual Labour Day parade is a unique blend of celebration and protest.

“These people have come out to show pride in their movement and the contributions it has made,” said John Cartwright, president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, which helped organize the event.

Cartwright estimated that up to 22,000 Ontario workers took to the Queen St. W. route Monday morning, including federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. From teachers and nurses to firefighters and actors, union groups from across GTA were well represented.

As usual, the march mixed steel drum bands, dancing and cheering with banners demanding more rights for workers.

Cartwright said this year’s parade was especially important in light of recent labour conflicts, particularly between the Ontario government and the teacher’s union — which Cartwright called “an unprecedented attack” on teachers’ rights — and the Canadian economy’s sluggish recovery.

Gerard O’Neill, president of the Durham local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said teachers want the public to understand what they’re facing.

Ontario teachers have not made any move to strike, but remain at loggerheads with the Dalton McGuinty government, which first demanded and failed to get most boards to settle deals with their teachers by Sept. 1, their first day without a contract, then introduced Bill 115, which imposes a freeze on wages, cuts sick days and bans strikes and lockouts for two years. Many members from other unions expressed their support for teachers and their right to collective bargaining at the parade Monday. (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday June 22, 2011

June 22, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 22, 2011

Back-to-work Legislation in the making

Canada Post workers are gathering in the heart of Toronto’s downtown to rally against the federal government’s attempt to force them to go back to work if a contract agreement can’t be struck.

John Cartwright, the president of Toronto and York region labour council, said he expects hundreds to gather at the rally Wednesday morning at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets.

In addition to postal workers, workers from every sector of the economy are expected to attend the rush-hour rally at one of the busiest corners in the city.

Those people, Cartwright said, are standing up for the next generation of Canadian workers who deserve the same wages and benefits his generation received. As of about 8:30 a.m., more than 100 workers had assembled at Yonge and Dundas, surrounded by loudspeakers and carrying placards emblazoned with slogans like “negotiate not legislate.”

The rally comes two days after the Conservative government in Ottawa tabled back-to-work legislation. Parliament spent much of the day Tuesday debating the legislation, which would force workers to go back to work should the union, CUPW, and management fail to reach a deal on a new contract.

The government hopes to vote on the legislation Thursday.

Canada Post locked out workers on June 14, after 12 days of rotating strikes launched by the union. The two sides met for talks on Tuesday (Source: CBC News)