The era of labour unrest starts in Ontario and we all should be paying attention

Education support staff in Ontario, in their effort to secure a new contract with government, are asking for fair wage increases in a time of high inflation. The Ontario government has responded with a measly offer that fails to address recent inflation, not to mention years of raises that failed to keep up with modest inflation of those times, with many of those years having no raise at all. The workers justifiably responded by giving government the mandated five-days notice to strike. The Ontario government responded by first tabling back to work legislation and then declaring their intention to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution, essentially stripping these workers of their constitutional right to strike and imposing fines of $4,000 per day for each worker who defies the order, and up to $500,000 per day for their union.

You don't have to be an education worker or a member of a union to understand just how absolutely disgusting this is for any worker to be treated this way. Forget the fact that these people are responsible for supporting our children, the future generations of our country, these are simply humans who deserve a fair and reasonable contract in a time of high inflation and increasing wealth inequality. Profits are through the roof for corporations and the wealthy are far from hurting, yet for some reason governments are starting to beat the drums of austerity claiming weaning revenues (despite government budget surpluses).

The union and its brave workers have since announced they will defy the Ontario government and their attempt to bully them, by striking anyway, which all workers should support. The fact is, this is only the beginning of the coming labour unrest in our country. As I have been writing constantly about, workers have been seeing their incomes stagnate and wealth decline over the past four decades, as those at the top reap the benefits thanks to neoliberal policies of low taxes on the rich and corporations, weak regulations, and decimated public services and worker protections. Pro-corporate and anti-worker governments across Canada are allowing this to happen as the pandemic and now profiteering and fragile supply chains exacerbate the problem, and they won't stop at anything to distract us while we get robbed by their owners.

Take a look at my province of Saskatchewan, as our conservative government pushes forward the ridiculous and feckless Saskatchewan First Act, which fails to address the government's own incompetence and the fact they are selling our province out piece-by-piece. Make no mistake, the Saskatchewan government is not doing anything unique with this legislation. As they tend to do, they are following the lead of the conservative Alberta government to our west and their attempts to do the same thing, which seeks to place blame on a bogey man in Ottawa. Alberta's new premier has even tweeted her support for the Saskatchewan government's efforts.

When it comes to suppressing worker wages, including those of you and I, businesses are more emboldened to low-ball their workers when entire sectors of the job market have their wages suppressed. This is where pressure for public sector unions to accept below-inflation wage increases come in. When governments like Saskatchewan's inevitably follows the lead of Ontario's, it will be incumbent of all of us to have solidarity for our fellow worker. When they fall, we too will fall, and we cannot let that happen.

For more coverage on this developing story in Ontario and why we all should care, you can watch David Doel of the Rational National discuss it in his recent video here.