Labour Board Hearing Continues After 16 Hours of Heated Debate

CUPE members and supporters join a demonstration in Ottawa on Nov. 4, 2022. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

After more than 16 hours of arguments before the labour board on Nov. 5, the hearing continued the following day with both sides making their case about the ongoing strike of 55,000 Ontario education workers who walked off the job Nov. 4, closing multiple schools across the province for in-person learning.

Arguments before board chair Brian O‘Byrne continued until 1:30 a.m. Nov. 6, with plans to resume a few hours later at 7 a.m. There was no word on when the Ontario Labour Board would release a decision, but O’Byrne said he anticipated the hearing would wrap up Nov. 6.

During the hearing, O'Byrne told the lawyer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) that Ontario has the right to use the notwithstanding clause, even if it is “politically risky.”

“Under our laws, governments can do this kind of thing legally. Even though some of us may find it distasteful or worse than that, they still have the right to do it,” he said.

“By law, when we have a collective agreement, then you’re not supposed to strike. And the reality is there’s a collective agreement, whether you like it or not.”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce, on behalf of the province, went to the Ontario Labour Relations Board last week for a declaration the walkout by education support workers is illegal, arguing that CUPE has “called or authorized” an unlawful strike.

Leece told reporters that one million students who missed school across the province on Nov. 4 had a right to an education and the province would get kids back in classrooms using “every tool available.”

Strike Could go on Indefinitely

During the hearing, CUPE lawyer Steven Barrett said that allowing the Ontario government to deem the walkout illegal would nullify labour laws and collective bargaining rights. CUPE has said the strike could go on indefinitely.

Meanwhile, lawyer Ferina Murji, representing Ontario, said the province’s labour laws cannot be undermined and the walkout needs to be declared illegal. She alleged CUPE leadership knowingly advised workers to take part in an illegal strike.

Murji told the labour board that it must make it clear that unlawful strikes cannot continue. The Labour Relations Act, she said, prohibits walkouts while contracts are in place.

Strike or Protest?

Both sides argued over the definition of a strike before the board, with CUPE stating that the labour action was was not a strike, but rather a “legitimate public protest.”

Murji responded, “This is a work stoppage ... and therefore a strike, full stop.”

Murji provided video to the labour board in which CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn said the union would provide the same benefits to workers that it does in any strike. She also played video of Laura Walton, president of CUPE Ontario’s School Board Council of Unions, comparing the walkout to one that was planned in 2019.

The government passed a law pre-emptively on Nov. 3, which imposed a four-year contract on workers and gives the province the power to issue fines of up to $4,000 each per day per person on the picket line, plus $500,000 in fines per day for the union.

Talks between the province and CUPE broke down last week, with Ontario using the notwithstanding clause in back-to-work legislation intended to prevent a strike and protect the bill from legal challenges.

Leece stated it was a priority to keep kids in school after three years of disruption due to a 2019 teacher’s dispute and COVID-19 school closures that saw millions of children educated by Zoom.

A few schools were able to remain open for learning on Nov. 4. Support staff for the Waterloo Region District School Board are not part of the same union. Halton District School Board plans to alternate between remote learning and in-person classes next week if the strike continues.

Toronto District School Board is one of many that said they will be closed Nov. 7 if the walkout continues, because the striking staff provide critical services like lunchroom supervision, security on campus, and kindergarten support.

Isaac Teo and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.