Presentation to United Association Local 46

June 25, 2011

Warren Kinsella

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Good morning!

• The Harris/Eves Experiment

• The Hudak Threat

• Your role in the October 6 election

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The Harris Years (1995-2002)

• Dismantled more than 46% of the Ministry of Labour’s operating budget

• Fired over 457 Ministry of Labour employees, in addition to one third of the Ministry of Labour’s workplace safety inspectors

• Introduced provisions to end pension protection laws and pay equity

• Fired 10,600 public servants within first few years of office• Favoured privatization of major services

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The Harris Years: Labour Reforms

• Bill 7: Labour Relations and Employment Statute Law Amendment Act– Repealed previous government’s anti-scab legislation

• Bill 31: Economic Development and Workplace Democracy Act• Eliminated automatic union certification and placed

decertification powers in hands of government • Permitted “non-construction employers” to use non-

unionized builders• Enabled government to ban private sector strikes on

large-scale construction projects

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The Harris Years: Labour Reforms

• Bill 147: Employment Standards Act– Increased work week to 60 hours (7.5 days)– Averaged overtime pay to over a 4-week period– Reduced required amount of time off between shifts,

and time required for lunch breaks

• Introduced amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, repealing a worker’s right to refuse unsafe or harmful work at no penalty

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The Harris Years: Worker’s Compensation

• Bill 99: Worker’s Compensation Reform Act, 1996• Reduction of workers’ benefits by 5 per cent• Benefits cut off if worker fails to recover “in normal healing

times”• Reduction in long-term benefits for seriously injured

workers• Phased out independent Occupational Disease Panel• Required injured workers to apply for compensation

benefits; doctors of injured workers no longer required to file claims on worker’s behalf

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Health Care Workers• Substantial cuts to health

care sector

• Closed 28 hospitals

• Fired 6,200 nurses

• Eliminated over 10,000 hospital beds

• Ambulance services downloaded to municipalities, allowing for privatization

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Teachers

• Bill 160: Education Quality Improvement Act

• Reduced education by $987 million per year

• Shut down over 192 schools across the province

• Reduced authority of school boards/teachers’ unions by allowing government to:

• Regulate class sizes

• Adjust property tax education rates

• Adjust teachers’prep time

• Allowed noncertified instructors to teach thousands of students across the province

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Firefighters

• Bill 84: Fire Protection and Prevention Act

• Allowed for replacement of full-time firefighters with part-time or volunteers with less training and experience

• Allowed for the privatization of some fire services

• Repealed the firefighters’right to strike

• Increased work week to 48 hours from 42 hours

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Labour under Eves

• Planned to make education strikes, lockouts and work-to-rule campaigns illegal during the school year

• Introduced legislation banning agricultural workers from joining unions or bargaining collectively

• Permitted the closure of two major auto-assembly plants; loss of 3,000 auto sector jobs

• Proposed privatization of Hydro One

• Even more funding cuts to health care, education

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The Harris-Eves Legacy• Highest workplace-related death rate in Ontario in

decades

– 243 deaths caused by workplace accidents in year 2000 alone

• Largest teachers strike ever seen in North America

– 26 million school days lost

– Affected more than two million students

• One of the greatest health care shortages in Ontario’s history

• Tragedies like the Walkerton Disaster due to OPS layoffs

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Tim Hudak: Mike Harris, the Sequel

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The Hudak Threat

• Proposes to “shrink the public sector and bring public sector salaries in line with private sector realities” (Tim Hudak, June 9, 2011)

• Proposes to scrap the Human Rights Tribunal which protects employees from employer harassment and discrimination in the workplace

• Proposes to cut WSIB Premiums (insurance premiums that help workers who suffer workplace accidents or injuries)

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The Hudak Threat: 2011 PC Platform

The PC “changebook” outlines the following priorities for Labour: –2% cuts to all sectors other than education and

health–Stopping a union’s ability to get involved in

political campaigns –Repeal card-based certification practices

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The Hudak Threat: Same Key Players

• Tim Hudak– Former Parliamentary Assistant

to Minister of Health during Harris years

• Elizabeth Witmer, MPP – Former Minister of Health and

Minister of Labour under Harris

• Jim Wilson, MPP– Former Minister of Health under

Harris

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Recent Example: Community Colleges

• Since 2000-2001, apprenticeship enrolment at union-employer training centres has increased 150 per cent, more than at college administered programs. But, Hudak wants to “reform” Ontario’s apprenticeship system by making it harder to sign up apprentices to the colleges

• Hudak has also proposed reduce the journeyman-to-apprentice ratio to one

• Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities John Milloy spoke out against this scheme, noting that community colleges “play a huge role for employers and others that do training”

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The Hudak Threat

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9tvBfcoLjU

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The McGuinty Difference

• Improved relationship between organized labour and government

• Zero provincial union strikes in the past 8 years

• Re-introduction of card-based certification, allowing workers to become unionized automatically

• Discussions with federal government about increasing pensions

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Why it matters: The federal example

• Vote splitting, as we saw in the May 2011 federal election, can get Hudak back in government

• Vote splits in several major ridings allowed Conservatives to “come up the middle”

• The result:

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CASE STUDY #1: Willowdale• Toronto-area riding

• Liberal stronghold for past three decades

• 2008 Results:• Martha Hall Findlay (Liberal): 23,889 votes (48.66%)

• Jake Karns (Conservative): 15,931 votes (32.45%)

• Susan Wallace (NDP): 5,011 votes (10.20%)

• 2011 Results:• Chungsen Leung (Conservative): 22,206 votes (41.7%)

• Martha Hall Findlay (Liberal): 21,245 votes (39.9%)

• Mehdi Mollahasani (NDP): 9,780 votes (18.4%)

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CASE STUDY #1: Willowdale

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CASE STUDY #2: Nipissing-Timiskaming

• Northern Ontario riding

• Liberal stronghold for past three decades

• 2008 Results:– Anthony Rota (Liberal): 18, 510 votes (44.6%)

– Joe Sinicrope (Conservative): 13,432 votes (32.3%)

– Dianna Allen (NDP): 6,582 votes (15.8%)

• 2011 Results:– Jay Aspin (Conservative): 15,495 votes (36.7%)

– Anthony Rota (Liberal): 15, 477 votes (36.6%)

– Rona Eckert (NDP): 8,781 votes (20.8%)

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CASE STUDY #2: Nipissing-Timiskaming

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CASE STUDY #3: Mississauga—Brampton South

• GTA riding

• Liberal stronghold for past two decades

• 2008 Results:– Navdeep Bains (Liberal): 21,220 votes (47.69%)

– Salma Ataullahjan (Conservative): 14,664 (32.95%)

– Karan Pandher (NDP): 5,268 votes (11.83%)

• 2011 Results:– Eve Adams (Conservative): 23,632 votes (44.7%)

– Navdeep Bains (Liberal): 18,579 votes (35.2%)

– Jim Glavan (NDP): 9,645 votes (17.9%)

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CASE STUDY #3: Mississauga—Brampton South

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What can you do?• Not just a lawn sign

• Contact your local newspaper, submit letters to the editor

• Open-line radio shows

• “Social Media” outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

• Support your local candidate – attend rallies, BBQs, events and debates

• Draft press releases and make sure they are dissminated and uploaded to the website

• Use paid media, such as radio or television ads

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Why it works…• Politically-charged campaigns

launched by other unions have been successful in the past

• Eg. Working Families Coalition

• 2003: “Not This Time Ernie” ad campaign

• 2007: first to broadcast spots warning against John Tory’s plan to expand funding to faith-based schools

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Thank you

416-642-3100 or

www.daisygroup.ca