Jan 27, 2009
Politics aside, students still stuck in middle
By JONATHAN JENKINS AND ANTONELLA ARTUSO,
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU (Toronto Sun)
The battle of York U. has moved from one between striking staff and administrators -- with students stuck in the middle, to one between Liberals and NDPers trying to dodge blame for the dispute -- with students stuck in the middle.
As legislation ordering 3,300 CUPE strikers back on the job inched through Queen's Park yesterday, it became increasingly unlikely that the up to 50,000 students affected by the work stoppage would be in school before Monday.
That would mean students have been out of class -- and out of pocket for tuition -- for 88 days.
NO TUITION REFUND
Yet the government dismissed calls for a tuition refund yesterday, saying only that it would extend student loan programs and encourage the university to complete the academic year.
NDP members, who are refusing to provide their consent for speedy passage of the bill, admit to being deluged with hundreds of phone calls from members of the public but claim that many are from supporters as well as those opposed to their position.
"Know that what's happening here today on the floor of the Ontario Legislature is a tactic on the part of the New Democratic Party to stand in the way as the only last remaining barrier that gets these students back into the classroom," Deputy Premier George Smitherman said during Question Period.
"They're unwilling to recognize the essential nature of education for these 50,000 students."
The NDP says it's the Liberals' fault for failing to get the two sides to agree sooner, and they were determined to use their time to tell the public the government is underfunding post-secondary education.
"We're not here to filibuster," NDP leader Howard Hampton said. "We're here to raise issues that need to be raised for the public of Ontario."
In yet another possible wrinkle, CUPE 3903 spokesman Tyler Shipley said the union is talking to lawyers and looking at "all options" in challenging the back-to-work bill.
A Supreme Court decision has put limits on a government's ability to order workers back on the job except in certain circumstances such as an impasse in negotiations.
"A deadlock requires two sides to stop moving and we haven't stopped moving at any point in this strike," Shipley said. "The day before this legislation was introduced we tabled a major concession. We put forward a new proposal that slashed all of our demands -- we dropped up to 50 of them. That's not a deadlock -- that's one side not moving and the other one moving."
Conservative MPP Peter Shurman said the "mudslinging" between the Liberals and the NDP over the passage of back-to-work legislation is pointless -- the workers should have been ordered back in class months ago.
Back on Dec. 10, Shurman asked the Liberals to bring in back-to-work legislation to end the then one-month-old dispute, concerned that students would be frozen out for a protracted period of time if the House rose for Christmas break without resolving the matter.
"People forget that this contract ended in the middle of 2008 and there have been multiple attempts at mediation and conciliation, and collective bargaining -- and I think in total the number of days where the two parties have met is 11," he said.
"The writing was on the wall."