Little Education Report

The war on wages

Jul 012013

Bill 115, attack on teachers' pension plan part of broader trend.

from The Little Education Report

Others may have said it before now and I missed it but the first person I heard discuss the War on Wages was Armine Yalnizyan, of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) followed up by Tom Walkon at the Toronto Star. When you look at the publications of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Canadian Centre for Independent Business check the policy initiatives of especially the Tories but increasingly Liberals in power in Ontario and BC, we can see that they have become the political arm of the War on Wages.

Where do we go from here?

May 202013

Public Values

Strategic voting the best choice for education progressives.

from The Little Education Report

Tim Hudak has rolled the dice on a Class Warfare approach to the seemingly imminent Ontario election and, in the process is helping to breathe life into the moribund Ontario Liberal Party with an extremist message. Broadly speaking Hudak will attack the entire Labour movement with Right to Work (RTW) plus an attack on the public sector labour movement. One only needs to look at the fundraising speech where he clearly lays out his totalitarian plans.

RTW is a blatant attempt at nothing more than undercutting labour lowering wages benefits and pensions and using the savings to reward capital. As Bill Clinton aptly put it, Right to Work means the Right to Work for less.

Hudak doesn’t pull any punches as he attacks wind and solar power as official fart catcher for the fossil fuel, and nuclear industry.

Under Hudak we, are in for another round of deregulation. Haven’t we seen this movie before, fewer environmental, food, health and safety regulations? Hudak openly proposes this stupidity.

He clearly states that tax savings will go to job creators, large corporations that are already enjoying a low tax regime and still sitting on their …um… assets and refusing to invest.

Hudak’s plans include removing Toronto control over TTC rail assets.

He is demanding Merit Pay (performance pay) for teachers and nurses as an example. This is compounded by a two-year wage freeze, unclear whether includes the Bill 115 period or only begins when Hudak legislates.

In a staggering attack on the teaching profession and all public sector workers, Hudak plans to phase out defined benefit pension plans such as OTPP and OMERS.

This breathtaking plan will provoke an equal and opposite reaction as the two sides of the classic dialectic meet in mortal combat over the highest stakes in many elections.

I sometimes despair at the slow plodding response of the labour movement and some of its allies at the increasingly obvious agenda of some major sectors of the business community to roll back every single gain made by labour and workers since WW2.

At this point, teachers, education workers, CUPE, other PS unions and private unions take note. Everything you have ever worked for and everything you have achieved in the last almost 70 years in on the chopping block with Hudak.

Where do we go from here?
On one hand, Hudak and his Tea Party followers are at the gates leading most polls but without, at this point, enough strength to win a majority but elections matter.

On the other hand, teachers, CUPE, other education workers have not yet recovered from a bitter struggle with the Ontario Liberals over Bill 115. Asking them to rise up and smite Hudak by backing the OLP is close to asking too much. On the other hand, doing nothing leads to Hudak and;

Further wage freezes
Merit Pay attempts
Attacks on public pensions
The end of statutory membership
Right to Work legislation.

Some major private sector unions such as the recently merged CEP-CAW union do not have the NDP support clause in the new constitution. UFCW is considering some support for Liberals under the circumstances.

The good news is that Hudak and the PCs are not positioned to win a majority at this point.

That could lead to a highly circumscribed Hudak minority unable to implement the worst aspects of its agenda or some form of Liberal-NDP cohabitation an accord, a coalition government or a bill by bill negotiation similar to the present situation.

What are the federations, unions, teachers, education workers and progressive allies to do in this situation?

Electing Hudak would be a disaster
Rewarding the Liberals after Bill 115 sends the wrong message
Electing the NDP will be very difficult although a big leap forward is in the cards.

“The good news is that Hudak and the PCs are not positioned to win a majority at this point.”

There are 11 seats on top of the NDP incumbents where the NDP has an outstanding chance to defeat the Liberals and supporting the NDP does not allow the Tories to come up the middle.

This includes two seats in Windsor, four more seats in Toronto, Oshawa, and Ottawa Centre, two seats in Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie. If the election goes well there are more seats in Toronto, Kitchener, and Peterborough.

Beyond NDP incumbents and these 11 – 15 seats, if the Hudak PCs are to be defeated, it is only by supporting Liberals that this is possible.

That leaves education progressives exactly where they have been since 2003, strategic voting but that is not the same as supporting ALL Liberal and NDP incumbents. The Liberals must pay a stiff price for their treachery. The seats above are the price.

On the other hand, cutting off one’s nose to spite your face seems a bit foolhardy. Minority government is the answer.

Our future is in our hands.

Is Mr Nasty fading to black?

Apr 012013

Public Values

Liberals back on track for another minority government.

from the Little Education Report

It is hard to imagine a better year March/12 to March/13 for an opposition party in Ontario. Of course there are the obvious ORANG air ambulance scandals, gas plant chicanery, wind mills controversy, race horse-slot machine revenue, but the biggie has been the attempt to implement an austerity program that Ontarians have clearly said they want no part of. Dalton McGuinty and his Finance Minister hail from the Blue Liberal part of the Ontario Liberal Party and their strategy of having the public sector in Ontario pick up the tab for the deficit caused by corporate bailouts and frantic infrastructure spending 2007-2012, blew up in their faces.

As soon as they announced their austerity plans last March they began a popularity plunge of staggering speed and depth crystallized by the humiliating loss in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election. This self immolation by the Blue Liberals has caused an embarrassing mea culpa that led to the hasty exit of both McGuinty and Duncan, casualties of a poorly thought out approach to deficit reduction. This stupidity even caused the party to bypass the Blue Liberal chosen one Sandra Pupatello and hand the leadership to the candidate with the more progressive reputation, Premier Wynne. On the surface this represents a further repudiation of austerity. We will see what it means in practice. Talk is cheap. Conversations get you off the hot seat while you get your act together.

It must be agony for Liberals to try to please their progressive voters and their Bay Street sponsors at the same time.

They may soon have to pick a side or become irrelevant when the big kids decide to duke it out.

With all of this Liberal chaos, one might think that the Ontario PCs and leader Tim Hudak would be the prime beneficiaries. It didn’t happen. First Andrea Horwath’s NDP shot past both parties into first place but since the selection of Kathleen Wynne the Liberal vote has begun a long slow climb back towards the lead. In fact, if an election were held now, the Liberals would get the most seats but not a majority government.

For those political geeks who love this stuff here is a regional breakdown:

Some oddities so I questioned Eric Grenier of threehundredeight.com. For these purposes northern Ontario includes Parry Sound Muskoka. I asked which new NDP seat in GTA? (Oshawa), Eastern Ontario NDP? (Ottawa Centre and Peterborough), New NDP Southwest Ontario? (2 Windsor, possibly Kitchener Centre)

In terms of personal popularity:

At the present moment, it is clear that Andrea Horwath is a major asset to the NDP, Kathleen Wynne is on par with Liberal support, (Dalton McGuinty lagged Liberal support) and Tim Hudak is a major liability to the PC efforts. It should be no big surprise why that is.

We considered this in past issues. Hudak is perceived by the Tory base to have blown the last election by being McGuinty light and not offering a clear alternative. It is as if he said “you want a clear alternative- I can do a clear alternative.”

We will deal with education in a minute but Hudak does not understand he is scaring the bejesus out of 70 per cent of Ontario voters. His Alabama style Right-to-Work plans are a frontal attack on not just the bogey man of organized labour but the average working woman and man in the province. Hudak wrongly concludes that anyone in a union is an enemy of the Tories so he can attack them with impunity. This is a classic blunder. The NDP especially and the Liberals generally only wish that all workers in unions hated the Tories. There are thousands of working people in Ontario that are economically progressive, union supporting but socially conservative in their personal lives. The Tories always had some of these and had a shot at retaining them but are almost force-marching them into the hands of the NDP or Liberals. I have mentioned in previous posts that Michigan Governor Snyder who signed a RTW law has fallen 20 percent since then and will lose the next election.

Hudak and the Tories seem to believe that because they hate public education and public health care (or anything else that starts with public) that everybody else does. The Tories have a staggering gender gap. Their testosterone filled macho posturing turns off women faster than it attracts men. He wants to delay all-day kindergarten for those who don’t have it yet, women get angry. He wants to raise class sizes, women get angrier. He wants to slash 10 000 non-teaching jobs in public education. Guess what, they are about 90 percent women and women get it. This guy verges on misogynist in his total disregard for womens’ priorities for public policy. Has this guy ever heard of the soccer moms vote, suburban middle class minivan-driving women who can go either way on politics until someone attacks health and/or education?

On post-secondary education the brain dead policies really make you wonder if the one three-digit IQ remaining, missed the meeting. To wit, Hudak wants to end the 35 percent tuition reduction that some working class and lower middle class families use to afford post secondary education. Who comes up with these nasty Ebenezer Scrooge policies? Are there no work houses?

Next he wants to discourage students from going to university and shift them to community college instead. There is nothing wrong with community college. It provides a vital link in the education chain, but when was the last time you met a family with kids that had the marks for university and the family encouraged the student to go to college instead? This is a matter of listening to corporate Ontario and their job slotting, skill matching strategies over the wishes and dreams of Ontario families. There is no skills shortage in Ontario in, for example the skilled trades area. Business wants the school system to over-produce certain trades in order to flood the market with trades-people who can, due to the laws of supply and demand, be paid less. Business complains about a shortage of plumbers. The plumber’s union responds “if you want $20/hour plumbers for sure there is a shortage. If you pay scale at $40/hour there is no shortage.” We may all see serious unemployment under our noses but business and conservative allies see a serious labour shortage on the horizon as baby-boomers retire and they are determined that it will not cause them to raise wages. Hence, Right-to-Work, delayed pensions, gutting pensions, guest worker provisions, skill based immigration, community college orientation, watch carefully — you can see the pieces moving.

Here is another education clanger. Loans should be linked to grades in post secondary where, in Hudak’s world, only the students with high grades are really trying. Has Hudak never met a student who is busting their posterior to get C’s? A poor kid, a working class kid, an immigrant kid struggling with English and university or college?

To conclude, why is Hudak “failing to thrive” notwithstanding his greatest opportunity since 2003? He keeps throwing political red meat to votes that he already has but each of these policies alienates a political constituency where he could make inroads. His confirmed supporters cannot press the pencil any harder when they place their X for the local Tory. If you like Tories, you see them as competent managers. If you dislike them or more importantly — have concerns about them — you see them as nasty and heartless. Hudak seems determined to be known as Mr Nasty.

Premier Kathleen Wynne

Feb 132013

Public Values

Now what?

from The Little Education Report

There was a meeting during the late 1990s of a few people to see if a joint organization could be created to battle Mike Harris’ education agenda by putting together an alliance of parents and teachers. The thinking was this: teachers have tons of money and human resources to fight politically but when they do so in the name of teachers and education workers, although sincere, there is that nagging doubt that “you are only here for self interest.” Nobody accuses the parents of self interest but, conversely, they have no money and few human resources. If the active parents groups of Toronto teamed up with the federations and CUPE, the resulting powerhouse would rock the education world.

This eventually evolved into the Campaign for Public Education. There were four people at the first meetings, Professor George Martell of York U, parent activist Jackie Latter, parent activist Kathleen Wynne and your scribe. Ontatrio Secondary School Teachers Federation local president Jim McQueen, Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario president Martin Long and Canadian Union of Public Employees President John Weatherup soon arrived and added the necessary muscle to make the project work. Soon lawn signs sprouted all over Toronto with the message from Kathleen as I recall “Give our Kids What They Need to Succeed.”

Over the past 15 years, I have kept fairly close contact as Kathleen Wynne went from parent activist to trustee, to MPP, to minister of education. Kathleen is a Liberal and a liberal and well, I’m not but we both understood in the fight against Mike Harris, there was no room for too much partisanship amongst progressives. She was naturally pulled hither and yon in the political world where principle and pragmatism duke it out for hegemony on a daily basis. Some days you have to take one for the team even if you just argued in caucus or cabinet for the opposite approach.

On the other hand, and I say this as a friend, Kathleen has this maddening mediator’s approach to situations that always finds the truth is in the centre. This is what makes her a Liberal and not a social-democrat. I have often told her “Kathleen… sometimes one side is 100 per cent right and the other side is 100 per cent wrong.” Arrrgh. Was Mike Harris half right or was he wrong on every issue every single day. I rest my case.

Everyone is expecting miracles on the teacher bargaining front but they may be bitterly disappointed. Kathleen maintains “we have to have a conversation (her favourite word) about that but everyone needs to understand that we must have extra-curricular activities back but there is no money.” Classic Kathleen.

Sadly, she was water boarded with the austerity Kool Aid of Bay Street, Duncan, Drummond, and the other self interested losers.

Just wait until you see Dwight Duncan’s next job. If it doesn’t make you vomit you have a tougher constitution than I have.

As an aside, some of the teacher protest signs at the Liberal convention made me laugh out loud. Minister of Education, talking points queen Laurel Broten just kept saying “we are just taking a pause here…” which is a bald faced lie. Removing sick days is not a pause it is permanent. One sign read “we are just taking a pause on extra-curriculars” another, “extra-curriculars have been prorogued.”

My approach you ask? Mike Harris lowered corporate taxes by an amount that would yield $16 billion in 2013 dollars thus precipitating this crisis on purpose. To counter the self interested corporate opposition here; Ontario does not have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem. Deficits are composed of uncollected taxes. Go raise corporate taxes by the amount of the deficit, problem solved. The corporate taxes would still be the lowest in the Great Lakes Basin. Mitt Romney complained throughout the American election that Ontario taxes were so low no American state close by could compete. Obama, for heaven’s sake, a Goldman Sachs type corporate liberal on his best day understands a little math. 1) high level public services are a good idea for both social and economic reasons. 2) the poor have no money, 3) the middle class is tapped out. 4) the one percent rich has so much money they literally don’t know what to do with it since public policy has held their taxes low (Bush tax cuts only the latest) since the 70s really.

There is really only one way out of the crisis. The rich on Wall Street with their unbridled greed through hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps, bundled subprime mortgages, and obscene CEO pay, has taken the livelihoods of workers, farmers, the middle class, and even a big piece of main street and the business members of the real economy (the people who make things) to the casino of Wall Street, gambled the whole damn thing and lost. Who the hell else should pay for our problems but those bastards? Andrea Horwath is at least on the right path forcing Dwight Duncan to cancel scheduled corporate tax cuts. She is now demanding a reduction in corporate business deductions. Why should teachers lose their sick days while CEOs still write off their lunches and entertainment?

Notwithstanding the screed above, I’m back now. Somehow, although it would be nice, I don’t feel the short term problem is likely to be solved by Occupy Bay Street with pitch forks and torches at the corner of King and Bay. Premier Wynne will be looking at low cost solutions to encourage teachers to lighten up a tad. Here are the first solutions that come to mind. Bring forth the rotting corpses of the Education Quality and Accountability Office and the Ontario College of Teachers. Oh no we can’t do that as if either served any useful function whatsoever. Ken Coran’s ideas of letters of understanding have great promise. It allows for new understandings without technically opening up the contracts and putting everything on the table.

The federations believe millions could be saved by a federation takeover of all benefit plans. Will that even get a hearing?

Recent legislation has created a situation where teacher contracts must be either two or four years long. If the government was sincere, (please no laughing) then NEGOTIATE, year three and year four. Put in a decent wage increase, a cost of living adjustment clause and some compensation for the lost sick days, a buyout if you will. That is the shape of an everybody wins deal. If that or something close is not available then get out the political axe handles and the Louisville Sluggers. This thing is going to get ugly. The teachers are about to do to the Liberal Party what Carrie Underwood did to the car of her cheatin’ boyfriend. Maybe next time they’ll think before they cheat. For those who missed the metaphor, here is the Cliff’s Notes. Carrie represents the teachers and education workers, the bleached blonde tramp is Bay Street, the cheating boyfriend is McGuinty, and the four-wheel drive car is the Liberal Party.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/carrieunderwood/beforehecheats.html

The federations have literally millions to spend on anti-Liberal advertising and an army of expert political operatives to put into the field against the Liberal Party very soon. They know exactly how to triage the 107 ridings into can’t win, can’t lose and about 30 ridings that determine the fate of governments. Like the success of the united Greeks against the vastly larger Persian army, they know exactly how to deploy their resources to fight either in the narrow valleys or between the cliffs and the sea (Thermopylae). These resources will be deployed on an NDP only basis unless the Liberals smell the coffee. It may already be too late.

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