FRED HAHN, GUEST COMMENTARY

(Craig Robertson/Postmedia Network)

Universal social programs are rightfully a point of pride for Canadians. They speak to our shared sense of identity and our desire for an inclusive and fair society. They benefit us all, provide economic security and are efficient. Because everyone participates in and benefits from their universal nature, they are also widely supported.

That is why we created the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) in 1965 as a universal program. We saw a need to protect people’s economic security after retirement and wanted to make sure every worker was able to benefit.

Today, the overwhelming majority of Canadians see the need to enhance the CPP so that people are able to retire without worrying about how to pay the bills. The only sensible way to expand the CPP is to build on the existing model of universality, increasing both workers’ and employers’ contributions slightly so that we can double our retirement incomes from the plan.

Sadly, this goal of improving the lives of retirees has been stymied by governments pandering to wildly exaggerated, and simply untrue, fears that we can’t afford CPP expansion. The reality is quite the opposite: We cannot afford to delay CPP expansion any longer. Too many Canadians are being left unable to live with dignity in old age because government after government has failed to ensure our universal retirement security programs keep up with inflation.

Expanding the CPP for everyone has been the goal of the Canadian labour movement for a very long time. Union activists and leaders have been fighting for years to get improved public pensions for every single Canadian.

That goal was blocked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at every turn. His resistance is the reason Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario Liberal government first floated the idea of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).

Sadly, the ORPP is now the very thing torpedoing the goal of universal CPP expansion.

Last week, the Ontario provincial budget was tabled, including features moving us closer to ORPP introduction. The idea of the ORPP may have been a good one back when the Harper Government was blocking any attempt to expand CPP – but it only made sense if the ORPP was designed on the same basis as the CPP.

If an Ontario plan was designed on the same universal principles as the CPP, then it could be rolled into a future CPP expansion covering everyone across Canada.

But that is not what happened. The ORPP design is not universal. In fact, it will create a two-tiered system that takes direct aim at our cherished public pension system.

The ORPP exempts workers who have a “comparable” workplace pension plan. This exemption, which leaves some of our family, friends and neighbours in Ontario out of the ORPP, was already dangerously divisive, but now the plan’s two-tiered system is a threat to the foundational, universal principles of the CPP.

The proof is in the Wynne government’s clear statement that it intends to push for CPP expansion along the same lines as the ORPP. The budget itself lays it out: “CPP enhancement must be timely and provide a level of adequacy and targeted coverage that is consistent with the ORPP.”

This seems to indicate the Wynne government is asking the Trudeau government not to expand CPP for everyone, but only for some, just as the “targeted” ORPP excludes millions. Were this to happen, the CPP would no longer be a universal social program and would become two-tiered.

The government of Ontario is a major player in national public pension discussions. An expanded CPP requires the consent of Ontario. If Wynne insists on using her two-tiered ORPP to form the basis for CPP expansion, then the dream of CPP expansion to benefit everyone is doomed. In this way, the ORPP could mean the end of universality – the cornerstone to one of our most cherished Canadian programs.

For this reason, the non-universal ORPP must be stopped, for the sake of all Canadians.

Years of experience have shown that once programs introduce elements that aren’t universal, pressure mounts to convert the entire programs to the lower portion of the two-tier scheme.

Now is the time for the Ontario Liberals to press pause on their problematic ORPP and provide the leadership needed to universally enhance the CPP for future generations. Any continued promotion by Ontario of a two-tiered expansion is a direct attack on everyone’s retirement futures and an affront to the very essence of what we pride ourselves on as Canadians.

Fred Hahn is the president of CUPE Ontario 

 TORONTO, ON – The provincial budget tabled today at Queen’s Park looks like it was written by former TD Bank Executive Ed Clark for the benefit of Bay Street, not for the people of Ontario, says the president of Ontario’s largest union.

“On every major file, given the choice between benefiting Ontarians and benefiting Bay Street, the Liberals have chosen Bay Street,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “It’s not what Kathleen Wynne campaigned on; it’s not what the people of Ontario need.”

This year’s budget will hurt communities across the province as programs and services are cut in order to balance the budget by an arbitrary date.

“Maybe the Liberals missed the memo. Both their federal cousins and the people of Ontario clearly are less concerned about deficit than they are about investing in the economy to create the good jobs and public services we all need,” said Hahn.

Successive austerity budgets have left Ontario with the lowest per-capita program spending in Canada and serious cuts to front-line public services such as health care, schools, universities and social services. North Bay has seen more than 300 jobs cut from its hospital, Hamilton lost more than 70 child protection workers and the Toronto Catholic District School Board is looking at eliminating 100 educational assistants – cuts similar to those being seen in every community across the province.

To make matters worse, he said, the budget continues the Liberal plan to privatize services and sell assets we all own in common. This includes the sale of 60 percent of Hydro One, which government watchdogs and economists warn will ultimately cost Ontario hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Continuing the privatization agenda flies in the face of AG’s finding that P3 schemes have needlessly funnelled more than $8 billion into the pockets of private corporations.

“This government needs to stop letting bankers like Ed Clark drive the bus. They don’t have the best interest of Ontarians at heart,” said Hahn.

Instead, he said, the government should restore corporate tax cuts, which former Premier Dalton McGuinty bragged amount to $8 billion a year. They should invest in public services that create good jobs and stimulate the economy in every community across the province.

“The Liberals have a choice to make,” said Hahn. “Stop the cuts that are dragging our economy down, or face the thousands of people they’ve left unemployed during the next election.”

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 250,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

For more information:

Craig Saunders (416) 576-7316

by Paula Turner

This is not an actual letter I sent to Kathleen Wynne. I believe that we need to put our most professional selves on paper in hopes that we will be heard as I would like to have her hear the reality of our work. Let’s just call this a fantasy blog. 

Premier Wynne:

Your website implies that we should be more casual with you, call you Kathleen and feel comfortable sharing our concerns and views with you. Like a friend.

Well, pour yourself a big cup of tea. This is going to be an honest conversation. Between friends.

I am an Educational Resource Facilitator. You might be more familiar with the name Teaching Assistant or Educational Assistant. It doesn’t matter the name. There is no title that can possibly encapsulate all that the job entails. I think you know that. I think you know that we work with the most vulnerable students in the school system.

You know that others in our union, Designated Early Childhood Educators, work with the youngest and therefore also vulnerable students. Many of our students have mental health issues. Many others are marginalized for their economic status, their family situations, their sexual orientation or gender identity. Their learning issues, whether they are just entering the system or they’ve been in it for a while, are a big part of our focus. But there is much more that we deal with every day.

You, my friend, have been a member of the party that put DECEs in every kindergarten classroom some years ago. The Liberals said that Early Learning was important, would change the ways our students would learn and succeed. You enticed hundreds and hundreds of DECEs into the school systems, away from jobs that they loved to be a part of an initiative that was going to revolutionize education in Ontario.

And then, you pulled the financial plug and changed the plan. You forgot the promises made and the ways in which those educators were told they would be treated within the system.

You, my friend, have been at the head of the party that now has systematically pulled funding out of every sector of the education system – speech and language, social workers, teaching assistants – the list goes on. I know, you will say that the Boards are given the funding and they determine where it goes. Come on, between us friends, we can be honest. The money isn’t flowing the way it should and you are blaming the Boards and the unions.

The truth is simple: your government mismanaged funds and contracts and you misrepresented that economic reality to the people of Ontario.

But, my friend, I am here to give you some tough love.

Our member group will be receiving their lump sum payments this week. Those contracts your negotiators hammered out over those many, many, many months is 1% of earnings when it came to the bottom line (which after tax is closer to .5%). No one argues that there are people in far worse states. No one argues that this is better than nothing.

The problem is that the members of ALL the unions were made out to be money grubbing, selfish, non-caring individuals.

I’ll be honest – it is about money. That’s the way it works in a society where your value is determined by the value of your pay cheque. It costs more to live in Ontario, but wages are going down or staying stagnant. With less money to hire staff, people are doing more with less. Students are getting the best that our members have to give, but it’s not enough. We need more supports for our students and for ourselves. We need your help.

Friend, we need you to rethink the way that education is funded in this province. The unions and their members are not the bad guys. We could actually be great confidantes. We could tell you what’s really happening on the front lines. It would make your concern for the bottom line become less easy to justify.

Please listen to the people in education before you decide to gut the system any further. We want to do a good job. We want to do what’s right for our students. I hope you do too.

2/9/2016

There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that takes the moral high ground in terms of their implementation of extreme full-inclusion when it’s failing students, staff, and their families at an alarming rate.

American friends often ask me if my autistic daughter is mainstreamed or in a school for children with autism. I always answer the same thing: In my province we have full-inclusion. This means that all children regardless of diagnosis or needs are placed within the regular classroom. (If I stopped here, it would sound ideal, as if my Province is on the right side of history in terms of educating ‘exceptional children’, as if my Province is progressive and exemplary in its treatment of individuals with exceptionalities, as they say. and then I continue: This typically results in chaos within the classroom.

Today’s classroom is so very different than any classroom you might remember. Unless you work in the system, you might be shocked to spend even an afternoon in one of today’s classroom.  (The below description is not my particular classroom composition but this particular classroom does exist, and it exists right under your nose. In fact, maybe your child spends her days in this classroom.

Imagine an average of 25 children per class.

• One teacher and one educational assistant (if you’re lucky)
• 4 confirmed diagnoses of ADHD 3 Unconfirmed
• 2 Confirmed diagnoses of autism (1 severe non-verbal resulting in need for support 100% of the time,  and 1 with debilitating anxiety and hyperlexia resulting in frequent crying and outbursts )
• ​1 Undiagnosed mental illness resulting in anger, hitting, biting, spitting, swearing, resulting in need for support 100% of the time.
• 7 ‘typical’ children
• 1 Child who has recently experienced serious childhood trauma
• 2 Children with various learning disabilities (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia)
• 2 Gifted children (Is that even the term we use anymore, it doesn’t matter though, it’s not like we have time to get to them)
• 1 Medically Fragile child

TORONTO, ON – Six years of Liberal austerity budgets have failed the people of Ontario but have profited already wealthy corporations, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn told a pre-budget committee hearing at Queen’s Park today.

“We’ve seen years of cuts to public services to pay for corporate tax cuts from the Liberal government,” said Hahn. “They’ve given billions to corporations through P3s for projects that would have been cheaper if done by the public sector.

“Despite massive public opposition, they’re selling one of our most valuable public assets, Hydro One, to bolster the stock market’s bottom line.  And for what? It hasn’t helped the many Ontarians who have seen their wages frozen, their purchasing power decline and their jobs become precarious.”

Between 2003 and 2013, average after-tax incomes for workers in Ontario rose by only 0.4%. In some regions of the province, more than 50% of jobs are now considered precarious.  While corporate tax rates are at historic low levels, it is estimated that $700 billion in Canadian corporate returns are not being reinvested in the economy. Recent research indicates not only that corporate tax cuts do not lead to economic gains, but that raising corporate taxes may actually increase investment.

“It’s time the Wynne government’s budget prioritized people, not corporations,” said Hahn.  “It’s pretty clear the corporations aren’t prioritizing us. With the global economy once again in turmoil, the last thing Ontario needs is further austerity measures by this government. Our province is already shamefully spending less, per capita, on public services than any other province, and that hurts our economy.”

As a result of previous Liberal austerity budgets, public sector cuts are impacting communities across Ontario. Hundreds of health care positions have been eliminated, leading to service cuts at community hospitals across the province. Wait lists for services like child care, long-term care and social services are growing, while tuition fees have increased by 360% since 2006. Failure to invest in key areas, like public transit and public school maintenance, is causing issues across Ontario.

“It is time for the government to answer the question: whose side are you on? Are you going to continue to govern for the benefit of corporations, or are you going to govern to benefit the people of the province, our communities, our future?” Hahn asked.

CUPE Ontario’s submission report includes four key recommendations:

• Increase revenues, notably through returning corporate tax rates to 2010 levels
• End all forms of privatization, including the reckless sell-off of Hydro One
• Invest in public services to spark economic growth and improve workers’ lives
• Budget for wage improvements for workers in Ontario, including real measures to close the gender wage gap

The union’s submission includes detailed recommendations, including ways to generate $14 -15 billion in revenue annually and stimulate economic recovery through investments in the public sector.

“Even with cuts, recent studies have demonstrated Ontario families receive public service benefits worth on average $41,000 a year. It makes sense to restore corporate revenues and invest in public services that grow the economy and deliver real benefits to Ontarians and our communities,” said Hahn.

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 250,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

For more information:

Mary Unan (647) 390-9839

Craig Saunders (416) 576-7316

On Monday, January 18th, CUPE Ontario joins with those around the world who will honour the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. As trade unionists, we celebrate Dr. King because of his contributions to human rights and because we have a responsibility to carry on his work.

Although some don’t think of King as a labour activist, working people were at the heart of his human rights agenda. From 1966 onward, King focused on economic justice with the Chicago Freedom Movement and the Poor People’s Campaign. He spent his last days supporting black workers in their fight for union recognition during the Memphis Sanitation Strike.

Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the value in building alliances between the labour and civil rights movements, and worked closely with black and left-leaning unions. But King also knew that organized labour needed to radically rethink its approach to inclusion in order to survive. He repeatedly warned unions that we could not achieve economic equality without eliminating racism and discrimination in our own ranks and in society at large.

The struggle for social justice is far from over. Systemic discrimination remains embedded in our communities and workplaces. During the past year, racial disparities in Ontario’s criminal justice system – from carding and other forms of racial profiling to the fatal police shooting of a black father with mental health issues – have inspired mass protest and a renewed call for real political action to address the problem of racism.

The last federal election also exposed the extent to which racism persists in Canadian culture, with the bigoted rhetoric employed by the Harper Tories gaining significant traction. While the Conservatives have finally been voted out, it is crucial for us to stay vigilant. Across the country, racialized workers continue to be overrepresented in precarious employment. In Ontario, the Liberal government’s austerity policies, including the privatization of public assets like Hydro One, have a disproportionate impact on racialized people.

CUPE Ontario understands that the struggle for workers’ rights is inherently linked to the fight against racism and all forms of oppression. We are committed to combating discrimination in our union and our society through political action campaigns, raising awareness about diversity, and working in all ways possible to achieve equity and equality.

Copied from cupe.on.ca

It’s a doubly disturbing development.

After freezing wages for two years, a number of provincial Liberal governments across the country are again forcing public sector workers to accept “net zero” agreements requiring any wage or benefit improvements to come from savings or limited spending increases.

The “net zero” approach was started by the BC Liberal government shortly after the – 2009 recession. It effectively involved wage freezes for all provincial broader public sector workers, which meant real wage losses after accounting for inflation.  This tactic was followed by limited wage increases in subsequent agreements.

Now other provinces (like Ontario) that already demanded two-year wage freezes from their public sector employees are insisting on net zero increases in subsequent agreements. It’s just extending the number of years public sector workers in these provinces receive very limited or no wage increases.

The Liberal government in Nova Scotia is also demanding “net zero” increases in collective agreements with provincial broader public sector workers, with the threat of legislating these terms looming.

The province was demanding three years of zeroes followed by just one per cent increases in the fourth and fifth years. This proposal would mean annual wage increases averaging less than 0.4 per cent, well-below the rate of inflation. After inflation it amounts to a loss in real wage value of more than seven per cent after five years. The province is now settling for slightly less draconian terms, but is still asking for a two-year wage freeze and subsequent increases below the rate of inflation. It still adds up to real wage losses of 4-5 per cent over the terms of the agreements.  The Nova Scotia government is demanding these real wage cuts from their workers even though they are expecting to run a surplus next year.

Liberal governments in New Brunswick and Quebec are also demanding another round of concessionary wage settlements from their public sector workers, claiming these are necessary to help them balance the books.

It adds up to a disturbing state of affairs. While Justin Trudeau was elected on a platform that included stimulating the economy, helping the middle class and bargaining in good faith with public sector workers, his provincial counterparts are undermining his positive approach. As Canada’s new prime minister has emphasized repeatedly, it’s time to move beyond the politics of fear and division. The Canadian economy depends on its workers; it’s better if we work.

Copied from CUPE.ca website.

As we head to the end of 2015, it is interesting to note that the negotiating process in Ontario for education workers still has not concluded. We are talking about the negotiations for the 2014-2016 contracts here – we are not even in the right year at this point. We are past, past, past due for these negotiations. The process has fallen off the radar for the media, which works well for the government. The fact they have dragged their heels and dragged education workers through the mud served them well. They painted themselves as the heroes and education workers, and specifically teachers, as the villains.

Here’s my biggest problem with this: the people who were left last at the table, who were basically ignored by the government and the media, are the people at the bottom of the salary grid. And that fact alone is insulting and disappointing and ridiculous. It is not, as some would say, the fault of our unions. The government created the new negotiation system, one in which they hold all the power and all the cards. They decide the process, the timing of the process and who gets to show up when and where. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t an abuse of power the whole reason unions were necessary in the first place? So how did the government circumvent that? They legislated themselves into an iron clad position of power. Which indicates an abuse of power…and the circle goes round and round.)

The people who deal with the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society – the people who are early childhood educators and special needs/behavioural educators – are the ones being considered last. I believe that this points to a bigger systematic and societal issue. As the advocates and supporters of the most vulnerable, we represent our students. In the economic value system, we represent our students’ value to society.

And that is the problem. Our students, the very youngest and the most vulnerable, are incredibly valuable to their families, to our communities and to society. The money for those most vulnerable students and members of society is simply not enough. Programs to support behavioural programs and programs for people with mental health and disabilities are being cut, within and outside the school system. Salaries are being frozen and benefits being cut for workers who support people with these diagnosis – positions are not being filled or cut. The pressures being put on workers are increasing while supports and salaries are not keeping up with the demands.

This signals trouble and the treatment of education workers who work with these students is a signifier – a signifier of the way vulnerable people are considered by the government and institutions. Those signifiers should be ones that say, YOU MATTER.

The actions of our government, by putting that class of education workers at the end of the line, is just one of the signals that our system is in trouble – it is a big red flag that needs to be addressed.

Is anybody out there listening? Does anybody in power care enough to make a change?

By Paula Turner

Signals and signifiers

CUPE’s education workers in Ontario, alongside the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), and the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) will be back in court to challenge the constitutionality of Bill 115, starting Monday, December 14. UNIFOR also has intervenor status in the case.

The court challenge was filed in 2013 after Bill 115 stripped workers in the education sector of their rights to bargain collectively. CUPE’s position has always been that this bill violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  It was postponed at the request of the province in 2014.

“This legislation stripped education workers of rights that are guaranteed under the Charter,” said Terri Preston, representing 55,000 of CUPE’s members in the education sector.  “We joined forces with other unions because it’s clear that Bill 115, unchallenged, threatens all Canadian workers.  We expect it will be found unconstitutional by the Court.”

“Since the time we filed this lawsuit, unions won a major victory at the Supreme Court of Canada with the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour case on the issue of right-to-strike,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario.  “CUPE was one of the lead unions on that case, and because of that decision, which recognizes the right to strike as a fundamental, guaranteed right in Canada, we are especially confident in our position on Bill 115.  It was a mistake for Ontario’s education minister to impose collective agreements, to strip the right to strike from workers.  We are looking forward to making those arguments in court next week.”

The court challenge will start Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.

CUPE represents 55,000 education workers in Ontario, including custodians, administrative and clerical staff, educational assistants, instructors, tradespeople, early childhood educators, and many more, across all four school board systems (English and French, Catholic and public).

For more information:

Craig Saunders  416-576-7316

Andrea Addario  416-738-4329