National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The COPE Ontario Executive Board took time of its meetings in Toronto to honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Premier Ford and his Conservative party’s Bill 28 is an abhorrent piece of legislation that seeks to impose a contract with cuts to wages, strips workers of the right to protest and suppresses their voices, and saddles workers who dare to defy such ruthless and brutal legislation by the Premier and his party with a hefty fine. This legislation also pre-emptively overrides the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights Code which leaves workers with no right to challenge the legislation at the Labour Board or in court.
Bill 28 is historic and precedent-setting in all the wrong ways. It seeks to attack and undermine workers and the very democratic principles and ideologies that make a civil, democratic society civil. By invoking the notwithstanding clause, Ford and the Conservative Party are seeking to trample on some of our most fundamental rights while limiting the ability of those he and his government are stomping all over to challenge him and the legislation.
As of Friday, November 4, education workers who are members of CUPE-OSBCU will be in a legal strike position. Regardless of if the Bill passes or not, these brave workers will be off the job and fighting for themselves and for all our collective human rights. We must support and stand with them.
There are many ways you can support these workers who are bravely taking a stand.
- To find your closest picket line, please use CUPE’s Picket Line Finder here: https://cupe.on.ca/dontbeabully/. You can also send an email to Ford using the email form provided on the page. For those who live closest to an NDP MPP office, please consider travelling to your nearest PC MPP’s office to picket. The NDP is standing in solidarity with education workers, and we thank them for their solidarity.
- Email your MPP and let them know you’re opposed to this draconian legislation and that you stand with education workers using the OFL’s handy email your MPP tool found here: https://ofl.ca/action/email-hands-off/
- Keep an eye on https://cupe.on.ca/dontbeabully/ and CUPE’s social media channels for the latest directly from CUPE:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CUPEOntario
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CUPEOntario
- For our members working in education, keep in touch with your Local and their communications for your protocol on how to navigate this all.
- Stay vigilant and ready to act – in the coming days, there’ll be further actions called. Hear the calls to action and rise to stand with your fellow workers.
COPE Ontario stands in solidarity with education workers and all workers who are under an unprecedented attack that seeks to undermine our collective Labour and human rights. We must stand together and fight back. If history has taught us anything, the old adage remains true – the workers united will never be defeated.
Latest posts
THE LONG ROAD TO RECONCILIATION
On this coming Monday, many of us will be wearing orange shirts in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and all that it represents about the tragic history of residential schools.
Residential schools are not a problem of the past, but a profound wrong that lives in the present through the trauma created by an official policy of our governments that was rooted in attempted cultural genocide – a policy to destroy Indigenous cultures and identity forever.
Some of us have the day off, others will be working. Many of us will be attending special events, either through work or in the community.
Wherever we may find ourselves, let us make it a day of reflection in which we remember the thousands of young people who were torn away from their families and communities, and acknowledge how far we have yet to go on the long road to reconciliation.
Feds must fund TTC cars
COPE Ontario joins the calls for the federal government to help fund new subway cars for the TTC's line 2. This would be an investment that makes sense from all angles – the TTC and its passengers, the environment and Canadian workers. Let's get moving! Click on link for article from CP24
Happy 20th birthday to us!
June 20th marks the anniversary of the founding of COPE as an autonomous Canadian union.
It was on this day 20 years ago that the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union became a union in its own right, the leadership of the time deciding it was time to part company with a U.S. based organization.
COPE is a proud Canadian union with members from coast to coast.
We’ve accomplished a lot in the last two decades on behalf of workers across the country, and there is lots more to do. Here’s to the next 20 years!