Back to Work Legislation for CUPE, Ending the York University Strike?
Ontario’s premier, Dalton McGuinty, will soon announce plans to legislate the CUPE 3903 workers – who have been striking since November - back to work. The government is hoping students will be back in class by next week.
MPPs have been called to Queen’s Park in order to pass a bill sending the strikers back to work and they will be meeting Sunday, January 24th, at 1:00 pm.
The mediator has stated that there is no hope of the two sides agreeing on anything and this appears like it is the only solution. Finally, the interests of the students will be considered and placed above those interests of the striking workers who have threatened the educations of 50,000 students with their strike.
The only expected issue that will arise tomorrow will be the NDP’s opposition to the legislation. Their party strongly supports unions and could possibly delay the process by a couple more days. However, NDP Leader Howard Hampton must be careful; with tens of thousands of students affected by the strike, and many more family members and friends who are angry as well, such a move by the NDP could cost them dearly in the next election.
To me, unions are great when workers can join together in order to gain fair and equal treatment. In other words, unions make sure that workers get the necessities and working conditions that they deserve. However, when unions start seeking luxuries, and complain about wages, for a job that already is paying them one of the highest amounts in the country, this is a different story. Clearly CUPE 3903 has abused their power as a union, rejecting binding arbitration because they knew their demands were too outrageous. Similar to Ontario’s CUPE Leader Sid Ryan and his comments about Israel and Gaza, CUPE 3903 is stepping beyond their boundaries.
Ontario has sent the proper message to CUPE by forcing them back to work, and hopefully this will act as a deterrence to other unions, and will make them think twice before striking for unreasonable reasons.
Related posts:
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- NDP Delays Legislation to End York University Strike As reported by Michael Sheps, MPPs were summoned to Queen’s...
- CUPE Local 3903 and York University's Long Drawn Strike: A Degradation to Education Since the start of November, students at York University in...
- CUPE Gets Political – Sid Ryan Boycotts Academics From Israel CUPE is the Canadian Union of Public Employees that...
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Tags: 3903, CUPE, Education, legislation, strike, students, university, York
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January 26th, 2009 at 12:03 am
[...] Back to Work Legislation for CUPE at York | Political News and … Share and Enjoy: [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 1:33 am
If York employees are legislated back to work, it’s only good for the students in the short term. What it really does is hurt them, because when they graduate they’ll be entering a workforce where workers’ rights have been further eroded.
Read more at politics.markcarter.info
January 26th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Workers’ rights? You are telling me workers have the right to actively seek out and accept a high paying job, and then strike for more money and job security. If you don’t like the conditions don’t work there in the first place.
Give me a break, Mark.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
York Student, are you serious, I hope you go get an eduacation and become a teacher then be forced back to work some day , nothing like getting fu*ked by the government, and not even being kissed first. Back to work legislation is a slap in the face to all unionized workers. Remember your a student, paying the college. Sue the college if your not happy with the service they provide. Use the Law properly and stop bitching.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
rr – When people go on strike for such a ludicrous reason, I think they should all be fired. But lucky for them – and I guess that goes for you too – that York is not allowed to fire them all.
Going on strike held 50 000 students hostage. They were unable to go get a job, they couldn’t go home to visit their families, they could just sit on their asses and do nothing. Many lost summer jobs because they were supposed to start work in May. They lost their reading week – an opportunity for many to visit their families. Many lost their Christmas because they waited until the last moment to make sure the strike didnt end before going home and got delayed in the storms that took place around Christmas time.
The only people that got “fu*ked” were the students. The union should be ashamed of itself – using the students to accomplish their goals.
Imagine all doctors walked off the job? There would be outrage because health is important. Is education not important? Or is it a joke?
Theres no law to use properly. Should union members be allowed to point a gun at the heads of the students and demand the university to give them more money? Answer that for me?
February 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Maaaan, you know there is such thing in the web like search engine, http://google.com if you don’t, go there to understand why this post is bullshit