THUNDER BAY – Carlos Santander-Maturna says labour is under attack in Ontario.
The head of the Thunder Bay and District Labour Council on Monday said he fears efforts at Queen’s Parks in recent years, along with pending legislation, show government taking an ant-worker stance, particularly in the public sector where nurses are held to a one per cent raise annually over the next three years.
That doesn’t come close to keeping up with inflation, which has soared to about eight per cent in 2022, in part due to COVID-19 and in part due to soaring gas prices.
“I think it’s going to be a very bad four years,” Santander-Maturna said, as the annual Labour Day Picnic opened at Current River Park.
“But it’s going to be up to us to ensure that we’re mobilizing our own members. It’s what we need to do to force the government to slow down the political reforms that they want to do and have a pro-workers agenda and less geared toward the business community.”
Bill 124 is directly in labour’s cross-hairs.
Introduced by the Ford Conservatives, it provides three-year contracts that limit public sector salaries to one per cent increases, the province saying its necessary to cut costs and lower Ontario’s debt.
Workers are seeing less buying power under the act, Santander-Maturna said.
“It means over three years, we get a three per cent increase, when the fact of the matter is that inflation is eight per cent. But the government doesn’t want to incorporate any collective cost of living agreement into any agreements,” he said.
“If inflation is three per cent, you get three per cent. If inflation is eight per cent, you should get eight per cent … At one per cent every year, we’re actually losing seven per cent and our purchasing power is going to be affected.”
Lise Vaugeois, the NDP representative in Thunder Bay-Superior North, also said labour is under attack, particularly teachers and health-care workers.
It has to stop, she said.
“Health-care workers are being constrained by Bill 124 for the last four years, which means they have no collective bargaining rights and they’re held to a one per cent increase. This is really a lot of what’s pushing people out of health care,” Vaugeois said.
Teachers are essentially being pressured to sign whatever deal is presented to them, Vaugeois said.
With a strong majority, the Conservatives are under little pressure to make any concessions. That won’t stop Vaugeois and the NDP from trying, she said.
“The strategy is to get up as often as possible (in the legislature) and to be as articulate as possible about the effects. The government likes to throw around very big numbers. Supposedly 10,000 new health-care workers were hired, but we don’t see any workers anywhere. What we see are disappearing workers.”
Vaugeois said grassroots organizing is also needed to put more pressure on the province to rethink labour legislation.
The picnic, which runs until 4 p.m., includes pony rides, a barbecue, speeches and a petting zoo.
