Socialist Worker Supplement l Toronto City workers strike bulletin #3 | August 2009

CUPE victory shows solidarity can win!

The CUPE city workers strike has been an inspiration to workers across the province.

CUPE locals 416 and 79 drew a line in the sand on concessions. Despite relentless anti-union hype in the media, CUPE members stayed strong and built solidarity throughout the strike.

In particular, both locals went out together, stood together and went back together.

It’s easy to talk about solidarity, but building it and maintaining it under tremendous pressure as Toronto city workers did is filled with lessons for the labour movement in these hard times.

The artful way in which that unity was played out between locals 79 and 416 in the last days of the strike deserves study.

When local 416 president Mark Ferguson announced that a framework agreement had been worked out for outside workers, he said clearly that the next step for city negotiators was to hammer out a fair deal for local 79.

When that was done and local 79 had ratified their agreement, they made it clear they would not return to work without 416 getting back-to-work protocol.

This was a defensive bat- tle against an attempt by Mayor David Miller and the City of Toronto to take away hard-won gains from city workers. The contracts that were negotiated unfortunately represent a step back on wage settlements compared to other public sector workers in Ontario. This was, after all, the aim of Miller in these negotiations. But he did not succeed in taking away the sick leave back, which is in reality deferred wages. This is an important vic- tory for the labour movement.

Message in a battle
But along with the important lessons of solidarity, there are big questions raised by the strike that the labour movement must address to avoid setbacks down the road.

1) Miller’s attacks on city workers throughout the strike (blaming CUPE members for the hardship faced by welfare recipients, kids in daycare, summer camp participants, as well as the spread of swine flu, rats, etc, etc) showed that even a mayor who came to office because of labour’s support succumbed to the same neoliberal arguments as his predecessor Mel Lastman.

2) While it was disgraceful to listen to Mayor Miller attack city workers day after day, more alarming was the fact that labour-endorsed city councillors did not say a word in support or in defence of either CUPE local throughout the duration of the strike. So we have the irony of striking workers having less support from city politicians than they did under Mel Lastman’s regime.

Union members worked hard to put these councillors in office. Labour has to look hard at what it means when we support and endorse candidates, and what we expect when they win.

When Miller said “This is a strike against the children of Toronto” he sent a signal to every employer that it is open season on workers. To have deafening silence from city councillors day after day, as the media and the right wing whipped up hatred against strikers is disgusting. A shiver would have been hard-pressed to find a spine to run up among these “left” city councillors.

3) People are now very worried that Miller is finished and that a right-wing regime with a contracting-out agenda will come to power in the next election. We need to say that this is Miller’s doing. When you demonize city workers day after day, then put your bargaining position on a website to try to cow workers back to work, don’t be surprised when the right wing takes that as a stick to beat you over the head with. That is what happened to Miller. The answer is not to say “We shouldn’t criticize Miller because it will fuel the right” – the answer is to call the “left” politicians to account while building on this victory.

4) This victory was based upon – and helped build – solidarity not only between CUPE locals but among the broader labour movement. Many unions organized picket line visits, rallies, and barbecues. CUPE 416 and 79 reciprocated, marching with TD Centre workers fighting for their jobs. CUPE’s victory gives a glimpse of what’s possible when workers fight back together, and now we must continue building on this momentum.

Save good jobs! Support TD Centre workers

Sixty-one workers at Toronto Dominion Centre are fighting for their jobs, against a multi-billion dollar corporation trying to make them pay for the recession.

The Toronto Dominion (TD) Centre is owned by Cadillac Fairview, one of North America’s largest investors, owners, and managers of commercial real estate, which made $1 billion in profits last year. The TD Centre is operated by 61 members of CEP local 2003 – representing engineers, building operators, skilled trades workers and maintenance workers.

After deliberately dragging out negotiations and demanding massive concessions, Cadillac Fairview locked out all 61 workers on June 14. Then on July 14, Cadillac Fairview fired all 61 workers.

Many of the CEP members worked for decades at the TD centre, some for their entire working lives. As one of the workers wrote on his blog: “The locked out employees of Cadillac Fairview have really only two choices. Protest and picket outside the TD Centre to raise awareness about the way they have been treated and let the tenants know about the service reductions that are coming. Or, just walk away from their jobs.”

The union is taking Cadillac Fairview to the Labour Relations Board on charges of bad faith bargaining, but the company has delayed hearings until September. So August is a crucial month for solidarity.

Economic Crisis
The attack on CEP workers is part of a global trend of making workers pay for a capitalist crisis. As members of CUPE and CEP recently wrote in a joint solidarity leaflet: “we are all the hard-working people who have seen hours reduced or pay and benefits cut because of a recession that was caused by greedy business interests who would like nothing better than to see us fight each other. These are the same interests who have pushed globalization to bring down our standard of living, privatization to restrict access to important public services, and lower taxes to ensure the rich keep getting richer. When one of us loses the gains we have made, we all lose.”

Now the governments and corporations responsible for the crisis are scapegoating workers.

Global resistance
But there are growing examples of workers fighting back, refusing to pay for a crisis they did not create.

In December, workers at Chicago’s Republic Windows & Doors occupied their factory and won severance pay.

In February, Irish workers occupied their Waterford Crystal plant, triggering a national wave of protests and strikes.

In March, 600 British workers occupied Ford’s Visteon plant and won severance pay.

Through June and July, South Korean workers occupied their car plant to defend their jobs.

In July, 150,000 South African workers went on strike for a week and won a 13% pay raise. That month British workers occupied the Vestas wind turbine factory, showing how the labour movement and environmental movement can unite around good green jobs.

And recently Toronto city workers went on strike to defend their sick day bank, and won.

All these examples show a growing determination of workers to fight back against the recession, and solidarity is the key to success.

Help Build Solidarity
*Join picket lines: 66 Wellington Street West (1 block north of Union Station).
*Contact Cadillac Fairview CEO Peter Sharpe and demand he reinstate the 61 CEP workers and negotiate fairly. Call 416-598-8200
*Join the facebook group “Solidarity with Toronto Dominion Centre employees under attack” for updates on solidarity actions
*Follow the blog therealcfnews.blogspot.com to hear what the TD Centre workers have to say

The role of socialists
The International Socialists is a network of activists across the country committed to fighting for social justice and building solidarity. We produce a monthly national newspaper, Socialist Worker, to connect workers struggles. During the recent CUPE strike we joined the picket lines and built solidarity within our unions, and produced solidarity leaflets and window signs to support city workers. We are now trying to bring the same solidarity to TD Centre workers. If you agree with these ideas, join us!