strikes have recently most often been shorter and less intense (although the pressure of recession has been lengthening many disputes). Public support for schools and other public services is not really determined by labour peace, but also the issues of social justice, equity and quality of services unions are struggling for
cal project is much wider than the collective bargaining project,” Albo notes. “I can't see anything happening in the public sector or the school system without addressing the tax levels. You can’t bring in full day early learning on the basis of the existing revenue from neoliberal tax structures.”
In this context, there may be or may not be election reprisals that are targeted at specific union actions. But anti-union legislation may also come in a general, rather than targeted, form. Harris, for example, went after schools for a variety of reasons, from a dislike of teacher unions to the goal of privatizing much of the education system.
An easy starting point is the minimum wage. Currently, it is $8.75 and increasing gradually over the next two years. A recent study, A Living Wage for Toronto, estimates that two parents working full-time with two young children would need to earn $16.60 each to live adequately in the GTA. The last thing politicians want to do in the current climate is to hike the minimum wage, despite demands by poverty activists to raise it to $11/hour by 2011. One of the most effective responses to a recessionary demand shock is to shift income distribution toward people who will spend it. Even David Olive, a business columnist with the Toronto Star, makes the point: “By the simple device of raising the minimum wage, you can instantly boost the income of the working poor by a stunning 20% or 30% in one day, even while you're busy slaying the deficit dragon.”
Would teachers be playing into the hands of an attack on public education if our unions are militant in our demand for a raise, in line with raises that most public servants have been receiving during a bargaining cycle? Likely not. But this also depends upon building upon current support for public education, and the hostility toward public funding of private schools. And this depends upon teachers placing themselves squarely with wider struggles for a just education and social justice more generally. BUILDING SUPPORT BETWEEN BARGAINING ROUNDS This round of teachers’ bargaining in Ontario has ended in negotiated settlements, although this will not be the case in all areas of the public sector (as in the strikes in Ottawa and Windsor). Given the constant restraint and austerity of the neoliberal era, and now recession and private sector concessions, public sector bargaining will not get any easier. The neoliberal tax structure almost guarantees that labour peace will be more of an occasional luxury than a permanent reality. In this context, it would be worth examining the role of a union in between bargaining periods. Given that the working poor are getting poorer and wider income stagnation, public sector workers also need to see that their target should be the economic system that is perpetuating the constant budgetary crises. “The politi-
Unions need to look at using their resources in grassroots campaigning, hiring organizers, and organizing the poor, in addition to the normal lobbying, public outreach, and other tactics used to force the Ontario Liberal government to raise the minimum wage. Not only would this make a real difference in the lives of our students and communities, it would push back against the system that perpetuates economic inequality. Albo notes that this campaign has helped the union movement in general: “The minimum wage campaign has been a key part of revitalizing unions. It provides a way to reach out to new service sector workplaces and creates a more positive impression about unions especially in cities like Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.” A second place for teachers to start is by supporting our colleagues in daycare, many of whom are women of colour. At an average of $23,000 a year (over 12 months, not 10), support for our day care
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sisters is a matter of equity. Given the advent of full day early learning, teachers are going to have to grapple with this sooner rather than later. Public sector bargaining and struggles in the current period, for teachers as much as for other workers, are going to be about blocking the concessionary bargaining unfolding in the private sector from spilling over into the public sector. It will also continue to be about opposition to privatization, contracting-out and commercialization of services. Any successes here are going to depend upon connecting struggles for social justice more widely. For teachers, this will partly depend upon social justice issues related to schools, for working class people and racialized groups. But it will also depend upon reaching out beyond strictly educational issues to questions of inequalities caused by neoliberalism and capitalism, and organizing the unorganized. As the current bargaining cycle winds down, it is necessary to move on to these important projects. R David Banerjee is active in the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. References The Living Wage Study on poverty in Toronto can be found at www.labourcouncil.ca/livingwagefull.pdf. Public opinion data on education can be found at www.oise.utoronto.ca/OISESurvey/2007/survey_final_final.pdf. The StatsCan info can be found at www.thestar.com/article/420340. Public attitudes toward their well-being can be found at www.queensu.ca/cora/ _trends/Ec_General.htm. The article on ECE pay can be found at www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/ 270089.