Ontario labour board hearing to determine fate of union job action continues

A hearing to determine if a walkout by 55,000 education workers across the province is an illegal strike is set to resume on Saturday.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board is set to hear another day of testimony after Education Minister Stephen Lecce brought an application forward Friday, calling the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) move an “illegal strike.”

CUPE argues the action was not a strike but a political protest.

The move comes in the wake of the Ford government’s new law which was passed on Thursday imposing contracts on the education workers and banning them from striking.

The law uses the notwithstanding clause to protect against constitutional challenges.

If the board rules in favour of the government it sets the stage for thousands of dollars in fines to be levied against striking workers and the union. Employees face fines of up to $4,000 per day while the union can be fined up to $500,000 for as long as the strike continues.

CUPE says it plans to fight the fines, but gave no indication of how they plan to do that. The union acknowledged if it has to pay, it will pay. CUPE leaders have previously suggested they are looking for outside financial help from other labour groups, who have also declared their support for the job action.

Members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) joined CUPE by walking off the job on Friday, saying the legislation imposed by the government “threatens the rights of every working person in the province.”

The Labourers’ International Union of North America – LiUNA – which endorsed Ford during last spring’s election, called Bill 28 an attack on the fundamental freedoms of Canadians.

“When you endorse anybody, or you support and work with any party, that also comes with a responsibility to hold them accountable when they are wrong,” said LiUNA spokesperson Victoria Mancinelli. “And in this case, they are wrong. There’s no argument for that.”

Files from Michael Ranger and The Canadian Press were used in this report