BY AL CAPPE
TORONTO - "This is really great. This will show that we're serious," said Andrew Male, one of the thousands of striking Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU) members and their supporters who mobilized March 18 for the opening of the new session of the Ontario legislature.
Male was picketing at the Ministry of Education. Beginning before 7 a.m. pickets of up to 100 workers went up at entrances to numerous government buildings. At the same time hundreds of workers massed in front of the legislature.
At noon, workers converged at the legislature for a rally and the crowd swelled to 5,000. Steelworkers, teachers, postal workers, garment and auto workers, as well as students, and unemployed participated in the actions.
Faced with the growing confidence and resolve of the workers, now in the fourth week of their strike, the government of premier Mike Harris resorted to violence. A police riot squad attacked one of the picket lines near the Frost building, swinging their truncheons without warning at peaceful pickets. Two workers, including a teacher supporting the strikers, were taken to the hospital.
OPSEU members went on strike February 26 to defend their rights against government plans to lay off up to 27,000 public employees. They are demanding that workers whose jobs are privatized have the right to keep those jobs with union protection and wages, seniority be respected in layoffs, and laid-off employees maintain their pension rights. The government has dropped its demand to lay off anyone, at anytime, for up to two months.
The strikers mobilize to maintain picket lines at hundreds of locations across the province, calling on support from other unions. Rallies and marches are an almost daily occurrence in downtown Toronto. Three hundred strikers and their supporters rallied March 12 outside the Ontario Ministry of Housing, chanting "No Justice, No Peace."
"I am impressed with the strength of the lines. We have been able to unify all levels of OPSEU members," said Peter MacMillan, walking the picket line March 14 at the Ontario Ministry of Education.
The Harris government has repeatedly stated that a large percentage of the workers are crossing the picket lines, although even its own statistics add up to only about 10 percent.
"Harris didn't think we'd take it this far, so now he's taking cheap shots," said Sterling, an OPSEU member picketing at a subway entrance to government buildings. "The longer we go on the more profound our point is made. We have more public support now."
The strike takes place amidst increasing protests against the government and the employers' attacks on working people. The Ontario Federation of Labor has recently announced the third in a series of protest days against the Harris government. The next action is planed for April 19 in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area. Over 100,000 working people rallied in Hamilton February 24, while tens of thousands participated in similar actions December 11 in London, Ontario.
By a vote of 98.4 percent, the 7,600 bus and subway drivers, ticket collectors, and maintenance personnel at Toronto Transit Commission rejected company demands for pay and benefit cuts and for a two-tier wage system. Negotiations resumed March 18 with the Amalgamated Transit Union.
The National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the Canadian Labor Congress have called for a National Women's March against Poverty May 14.
One hundred hospital workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, chanted "Patients first!" and "Enough is Enough!" as they picketed March 12 in front of Toronto General Hospital. The hospital administration has handed lay off notices to 840 employees.
Several times the workers stretched their picket line across the busy boulevard, stopping traffic. Some of these workers had participated in the OPSEU rally the same day. The OPSEU strike is becoming a rallying point for many who are fighting the government.
Some 80 teachers joined an OPSEU picket line March 11 at one of the offices of the Ministry of Health preventing the entry of scabs that police and private security had herded across the line a few days earlier. Teachers are facing massive layoffs and many are lending their support to the OPSEU walkout.
Some 15 members of United Steelworkers Local 5338 who work at Ontario Store Fixtures, joined an OPSEU picket line near their workplace March 14.
"The OPSEU strike is more than just a trade union struggle," said striker Peter MacMillan. "It's about fundamental social and political rights of Ontario citizens."
The government continues to meet with union negotiators as the solidarity, unity, and pride of the strikers grows.
"Before, I never thought anything about the union," said Diane, a secretary at Queen Street Mental Hospital. Now she's a picket captain and doing extra duties on the line. "I'm a different person," she said. "No one will ever step on me again."
Al Cappe is a member of USWA Local 5338. Mick McDonald, a Young Socialists member, contributed to this article.