Ontario's education unions have a united front. With tense talks ahead, will it hold?
When Paul Calandra stepped to the microphone last week ahead of contract talks with Ontario’s education unions he projected a tone of optimism.
A day later, union leaders held a press conference of their own and met his tone with guarded positivity — and a united front.
But those statements stand in stark contrast to the tense rounds of bargaining that have come between the Progressive Conservative government and the province’s education unions.
Political strategists and academics who closely follow Ontario’s volatile history of education bargaining wonder: how long can the goodwill last?
“I think when the rubber hits the road, and people start disagreeing about key points at the bargaining table, we're going to see some shifts,” said Larry Savage, professor of labour studies at Brock University.
Those talks started in earnest last week with the province’s five main education unions saying they want the same things: smaller class sizes, increased support for special education, and a wage hike.
Their contracts expire in August and the minister has said he’s hopeful that deals can be struck by Labour Day. But Calandra’s interpretation of the Ford government’s record at the bargaining table with education workers has sparked criticism.
“I think one of the hallmarks of our time in office has been relative peace with our teachers' unions and with the unions representing education workers, but I'm optimistic,” said the minister, who is overseeing his first round of bargaining in the role.
Savage said the Ford government’s relationship with education unions has been anything but peaceful.
“I think the minister is suffering from selective amnesia if he thinks his government's experience with the education sector bargaining has been characterized by relative labour peace,” he said. “On the contrary, his government has locked horns with every union in the sector.”
In late 2019, fractious talks between the PCs and teachers saw the unions start a work-to-rule campaign that escalated to months of rotating strikes across the province.
A deal was reached in March 2020, but only after the early days of pandemic restrictions curtailed the unions' ability to take job action, said Stephanie Ross, a labour studies professor at McMaster University.
“We don't know where that round would have gone, but there's no way that you can say it was not conflictual,” she said.
In 2022, teachers agreed to send issues that could not be settled at the table to binding arbitration, which averted possible strikes. But the Tories attempted to impose a contract on education workers represented by CUPE using the notwithstanding clause. Resulting strikes in defiance of the law closed schools for two days.
The government was forced to retreat and repeal the legislation after a backlash from the public and organized labour, including some private sector unions which have supported Premier Doug Ford’s government.
The Tories' controversial Bill 124, which imposed wage constraints on public sector workers including the education sector, also ratcheted up resentment until it was overturned by the courts in 2024 and repealed.
“The key differences between some of the labour disputes that we've seen under the Ford government and previous governments is that [they’ve] really gone in fists flying against the unions in a very aggressive way,” Savage said.
Ross said the PCs have used a “divide and conquer” strategy during previous talks, finding a way to settle with one union and then attempting to impose similar terms on the others. But in this round the unions appear to be standing together, she said.
“My read is that some of the real deep structural problems in our education system are going to be on the table this time,” she said. “The unions seem very serious about co-operating with each other to make the question of the quality and level of funding for the education system the key bargaining issue.”
The unions are also using their organizational heft — representing approximately 255,000 people combined — to mount a campaign to win the public to their side, she added.
“In some places, they're going door-to-door, they're actually canvassing neighborhoods to talk to people about this round of bargaining,” Ross said.
"We'll see how they're able to withstand the pressures that will inevitably come when the government starts to think, 'well, how do we deal with this united front?'"
Away from the bargaining table, Ontario’s teachers and education workers' union have historically been a powerful lobby in the province. Their ability to communicate with and mobilize their membership, spend money on advertising, and at times endorse candidates and parties has helped swing support in provincial elections.
NDP strategist Erin Morrison was deputy campaign director for the provincial party in 2018 when the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) threw its support behind then-leader Andrea Horwath.
While the NDP did not win that vote, they improved their seat count and formed the official opposition. Morrison said ETFO’s backing helped move support to the party and away from the Ontario Liberals, who had a contentious round of bargaining with teachers ahead of that election.
“When you get an endorsement from a teacher or education worker union, like ETFO or CUPE … it really actually can change the trajectory of a campaign,” said Morrison, who is a vice-president at Texture Communications.
Morrison said in recent campaigns, the teachers' unions have not endorsed a party, instead opting to endorse individual candidates or mount issues-based campaigns. If these talks go poorly, she thinks that may change.
“I think in an election where we might be talking about a change of government for the first time in three cycles, they may choose to actually endorse this time, and they could have a really big impact on who wins,” she said.
Conservative strategist Sam Duncan said education talks have been a challenge for both Tory and Liberal governments.
“I think you have a unique profession that deals with our children and is very important, and at the same time, you're a government and you've got to allocate resources effectively and responsibly,” said Duncan, who is a vice-president at Wellington Advocacy.
He expects the PCs will try to communicate directly with teachers as talks progress.
“You're never going to get [the union’s] endorsement, you're never going to do enough for them, and I think it's about trying to speak to individual teachers,” he said. “I guarantee you, there's a lot of individual teachers that voted for Doug Ford.”
cbc.ca
