TORONTO — Ontario’s labour relations board began hearing arguments Friday on the government’s application to have a walkout by education workers deemed illegal and actions by union leaders declared unlawful, with the case set to continue into the weekend.
The province alleges the Canadian Union of Public Employees is engaging in an unlawful strike, while the union representing 55,000 education workers argues its job action is a “legitimate political protest.”
The two sides filed written submissions to the Ontario Labour Relations Board as thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job Friday to protest the government passing legislation that banned strikes and imposed a four-year contract.
The job action closed many schools to in-person learning and the union has said the walkout could continue indefinitely.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce had filed the government’s application against CUPE with the labour board late on Thursday.
“Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so,” Lecce wrote in a statement Friday.
The minister alleges the union has “called or authorized or threatened to call or authorize an unlawful strike,” documents filed with the board show.
The province also alleges that Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, “counselled, procured, supported, authorized, threatened, or encouraged an unlawful strike.”
They allege the same against Fred Hahn, the president of CUPE Ontario.
CUPE argued in its board filings that the goal of its members’ action is “to express opposition through political protest to the (province’s) decision to trample upon employees’ constitutionally protected right to collectively bargain and right to strike.”
Additionally, Hahn and Walton “deny that they authorized, counselled, procured, supported or encouraged an unlawful strike and that its members have engaged in an unlawful strike,” documents filed with the labour board said.
The board hearing that began Friday afternoon by videoconference was beset with delays. It took two hours to remedy a naming mistake on the documents by the government.
CUPE argued at the hearing that it wanted to summon Lecce to testify at the proceeding.
“He was running the bargaining and I’m entitled to know his role, but what I really care about are what decisions were made to override the normal rights we as Canadians, until now, took for granted,” said Steven Barrett, CUPE’s lawyer.
“If they had no intention of allowing CUPE members to strike, I’m entitled to know that.”
Barrett argued the government’s conduct at the bargaining table is at issue and led to CUPE’s protest.
The education workers’ union also wants to summon assistant deputy minister Andrew Davis to the hearing.
The province argued the witnesses aren’t necessary for the board’s chair, Brian O’Byrne, to determine if the walkout was an illegal strike.
Even if the chair determined the witnesses were necessary, Lecce would not testify because of the immunity granted to him through parliamentary privilege, said Josh Hunter for the minister.
The government’s new law has set fines for violating the ban on strikes of up to $4,000 per employee per day – which could amount to $220 million for all 55,000 workers – and up to $500,000 per day for the union.
CUPE has said it will fight the fines, but will also pay them if it has to.
The outcome of the labour board hearing should be straightforward, said Alison Braley-Rattai, a labour studies professor at Brock University.
“Of course it’s an illegal strike,” she said. “The government made it illegal to strike yesterday.”
It’s unclear how potential enforcement would work, she said, noting the government wasn’t seeking fines in its application with the board.
“That could come later,” Braley-Rattai said.
The Progressive Conservative government included the notwithstanding clause in its education-worker legislation, saying it intends to use it to guard against constitutional challenges.
CUPE education workers and their supporters gathered at several protests across the province on Friday, including outside the legislature in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2022.
