Passed at the June 20 + 21 Meeting of the Provincial Committee
Special Resolution: Solidarity With OPSEU Social Service Workers on Strike
The Communist Party of Canada stands with OPSEU workers across the province who are on strike in the health, community, and social service sector. These workers are fighting to protect vital services working people and some of the most marginalized members of our province rely on, and deserve fair treatment, compensation, and the back pay owed to them following years of austerity and attack from the Ford government.
In the early days of the COVID pandemic, OPSEU workers in the public sector were cynically lauded as heroes by the provincial government, before being undercut by Ford’s Bill 124, which froze their wages well below inflation at 1%. Bill 124 was found to be unconstitutional and eventually overturned, yet these workers have not received the back pay owed to them.
Despite providing essential services across the province, workers in the social service sector are among the lowest paid workers in the public sector, with the pay gap only increasing following Bill 124 and the inflationary spiral of the last several years. These workers are also significantly more likely to be women and racialized.
In addition to fighting for back-pay they are rightfully owed, OPSEU workers are also fighting to protect the programs and services themselves. Since taking power in 2018, the Ford government has systematically underfunded the programs and services provided, both through direct cuts and by funding below the rate of inflation. Despite their best efforts to fill the gaps, workers have made it clear that they cannot be stretched any further to cover Ford’s cuts to the system, and are fighting for better funding to save the programs so many in the province rely on.
The strike has also unearthed evidence of more covert privatization being advanced in the sector, with OPSEU revealing in the second week of the strike that Ford had quietly directed $1 billion in funds for these public services to be routed first through 3 private (Accerta, Serco and WCG), who skimmed unknown profits off the top during the pass through process. This mirrors the privatization attempts Ford has made in healthcare and education: impose inflation-adjusted cuts to create a crisis; second, use the manufactured crisis as a pretext to seize control; third, privatize assets and impose a regressive agenda. By pushing back on the cuts, striking OPSEU workers are fighting to protect the whole public system.
The Communist Party calls for mass public support and labour solidarity with OPSEU workers on strike. Despite their small unit sizes, militancy and determination is clear on the lines, and should serve as an inspiration for and invitation to other workers and unions to join them. To assist in the development of the province-wide fightback, the OFL must work with local labour councils to build support and momentum for a unified fightback against Ford’s regressive policies. Our members will continue to join picket lines and build solidarity across unions and movements, and call on all working people to support OPSEU’s fightback!
The Communist Party of Canada calls for:
- The massive expansion of universal public services, including in the health, community, and social service sectors
- Restore and expand funding for frontline public services
- Return public services to public ownership and operation, with funding for adequate and well-paid staff
- Enshrine a Labour Bill of Rights for Ontario to protect the right to organize, free collective bargaining, picket and strike for all workers
- Enact anti-scab laws, bankruptcy protection for workers, and card check union certification for all workers
- Ban legislation that would place limits on negotiated public sector wages or inhibit free bargaining
