Education Action: Toronto

By Dudley Paul

One of the side benefits of economic downturns, perceived or otherwise, is the opportunity to cut back on government services and bust unions. We saw this in the Common Sense Revolution, which in the name of austerity, cut back on everything from schools to welfare benefits as it rang up billions of dollars in deficits.

Our own Mayor Rob Ford blithely proclaims no tax increases for 2011, as, one-handed, he cuts out sources of income such as the tax on cars and transfers of real estate. With the other he prods a receptive provincial government to take away the right to strike from city transit workers and moves to privatize unionized garbage collection – inviting workers to bid against their own contracts.

But it isn’t just happening here.

Though you’d have never known from following local media, about 100 000 people rallied across Wisconsin on February 18 protesting a bill introduced by Republican Governor Scott Walker to save $137 million in this year’s budget. The bill would repeal most collective bargaining rights dating back almost forty years for state and local workers and require state employees to contribute 5.8% of their pay to their pensions and pick up at least 12.6% of premiums for a health care plan with fewer benefits. Another feature of Governor Walker’s bill would give the state’s Department of Public Health extensive powers to save money by changing health-care programs for 1 million low-income people.

Though it hasn’t changed anything, union members, including Wisconsin teachers, have agreed to pony up the money for pensions and health care. According to Brian Washington spokesperson for Wisconsin Education Association Council, the union representing 98 000 educators across the state, teachers in some districts have taken pay cuts. But public workers are standing firm for their collective bargaining rights. Over the past 10 days thousands workers and supporters have staged mass protests across the state including Milwaukee and the state capitol, Madison.

Supporters across the country joined them rallying in Las Vegas, Helena, Montana, Carson City Nevada and Raleigh, North Carolina. Democratic state senators literally left the state, denying quorum in order to block a vote on the bill. Here at home Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and Ontario Secondary Schools Federation (OSSTF) have sent letters supporting public workers. Teachers across Wisconsin have been calling in sick by the thousands. So while Governor Walker claimed to Fox news that he won’t “back down”, it doesn’t look like teachers and other public workers plan to either.

Wisconsin public workers say "no" to stripping contracts.

They aren’t the only ones facing retrenchment of basic rights. In Tennessee a bill abolishing bargaining rights for teachers passed a State Senate committee despite their objections. Indiana is considering proposals to weaken unions, becoming perversely a “right to work” state. The same is true in Ohio. There is definitely a trend here.

It is important to underline that none of this is about saving money- those items have been taken off the table. It is about stripping contracts and breaking the power of unions, based on the fiction that members of strong public unions are somehow inherently opposed to the public from which they come.

The outrage and resulting actions of public workers in Wisconsin is significant. We need to pay attention to events there, if for no other reason than to see how pervasive is the drive to bring a heavy hand down on unions and public sector workers whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Here or there, it is the same.

The last words can go to Wisconsin Education Association Council:
What’s happening right now in Wisconsin is historic. Tens of thousands of citizens – unprecedented numbers – are gathering and speaking out to show their support for our state’s public servants. They want to voice support for the third grade teacher who stays late to help students with their math, for the nurses who work every day to care for patients, for the firefighters who keep us safe and for the snow plow drivers who work through the night so their neighbors can get to work in the morning. Public workers are on the front line everyday to support us, and they should have a say in their profession…

Silencing the voices of public sector employees by busting up their unions is not going to help Wisconsin move forward. It will only divide the people of this state.