By Richard R

It has been over a month since the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) held their one-day protest of the provincial Liberal Party leadership convention, mobilizing some 15,000 people on the streets of Toronto and then sending them all home again around 4:00 PM. The protest was part of the trade union response to Bill 115, which enabled the provincial government to circumvent collective bargaining and mandate the terms of new “collective agreements”. Within the bill were draconian provisions for any attempt to challenge the legislation, through the courts or in the workplace. It is worth noting that while the union leadership were pushing for this day of action, they were also cynically hedging their bets in the form of thousands of dollars in union dues being funnelled into contributions to Liberal leadership candidates. In one case $10,000 was donated to Eric Hoskins, a leadership contender who had in fact voted in favour of Bill 115.

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http://www.rebeltimerecords.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=catego...

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/185151694960420/

Rebel Time Records is pleased to announce the line-up for Rebel Fest 3! This year we are featuring 15 bands over the course of 2 days: Friday, April 26th and Saturday, April 27th. As usual, the show is all-ages/licensed and at This Ain’t Hollywood in Hamilton, Ontario.

Friday, April 26th: : The Class Assassins (Toronto), Broadcast Zero (Kitchener), Spanner (Bristol, UK), The Fallout (Toronto), Dismantle (Hamilton), Beat Noir (Kitchener)

Saturday, April 27th: Brutal Youth (Toronto), Hold A Grudge (Montreal), Spanner (Bristol, UK), Farler's Fury (Sherbrooke), Action Sédition (Montreal), Mayday (Montreal), The Nefidovs (Windsor), At What Cost (Hamilton), Matt Damon (Guelph)

By: Devin K

With the recent resignation of Dalton McGuinty and the decision to prorogue the Ontario legislature, the future of the Ontario Liberals fight with the teachers’ union may be uncertain. The Premier's decision comes amidst the ongoing dispute with elementary school teachers and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), which has lead to the imposition of Bill 115. Cynically named the “Putting Students First Act”, Bill 115 bypasses the collective bargaining process forcing a 2-year wage freeze and ban on strikes, along with a host of other concessions from on the teachers’ union. In the current context of austerity measures being imposed by all levels of government, Bill 115 is part of the now routine use of anti-strike legislation in both the private and public sector.

By: Delbert Francis

The Ontario government has announced that it will end the Community-Start Up and Maintenance benefit (CSUMB) for recipients of Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) on December 31, 2012. Considering the real value of a welfare cheque has declined by nearly 60 percent since the mid-nineties, doing away with community start-up amounts to kicking the poor while they’re already down. To stop this cut poor people and public sector workers in Ontario will need to fight back together.

Translated from: UCL

By: Bruno Cormier

It was under the pretext of a $14.8 billion deficit that Dalton McGuinty’s minority Liberal government, with the support of the Conservative Party passed the special law Bill 115 – ironically entitled the "Putting Students First Act". Not only does it enforce a 2 years strike ban on teachers (while there was actually no threat of strike), but also cuts their sick days in half, abolishes remuneration of 3 off-days and imposes a 2 years wage freeze. This attack on collective bargaining of the working conditions of teachers present great similarities with such union-busting legislation in several states of USA.
 

On strike, locked out, and legislated back to work, postal workers have experienced first hand the bosses’ agenda of taking away rights workers fought for decades ago. Because postal workers are not alone in facing cutbacks, exploitation, greedy bosses, and the like, we have a lot in common with other workers, and we stand to learn a lot from each others’ struggles. The rules of the game are changing, and workers will have to start taking matters into our own hands instead of relying on elected officials in our unions or governments to make wise decisions for us.

Class war on the work floor: speaking tour with postal worker Rachel Stafford

On strike, locked out, and legislated back to work, postal workers have experienced first hand the bosses’ agenda of taking away rights workers fought for decades ago. Because postal workers are not alone in facing cutbacks, exploitation, greedy bosses, and the like, we have a lot in common with other workers, and we stand to learn a lot from each others’ struggles. The rules of the game are changing, and workers will have to start taking matters into our own hands instead of relying on elected officials in our unions or governments to make wise decisions for us.

September 3, 2011

Common Cause, an Ontario organization of working-class anarchists, would like to commend you as you embark on your historic strike against your employers.

Many of us are current or former college students and workers in the education sector and some have been on strike ourselves as unionized workers at Ontario universities.

We know that your fight is just and support you 100% as you fight for better wages and working conditions from the wealth that as workers you helped produce.

We are walking the same picket lines that you are at colleges across Ontario because while we may not be part of your bargaining unit we are all part of the same class – the working class.

We will stand with you no matter what your employers or the government try to do to break your strike and bust your union.

This summer we stood with the striking workers at Air Canada and Canada Post as the federal government forced them back to work with legislation.

By Gerard Lefebvre

In 1995, Mike Harris was elected Premier of Ontario, bringing an end to Bob Rae's five year NDP government. The province was ailing under a deep recession, which had seen many manufacturing and public service jobs threatened by what the governing NDP had referred to as “a new economic reality”. Elected into office by a population thoroughly dissatisfied with status quo responses to these economic maladies, the NDPs crafted a wholly inadequate response to the situation: a meld of traditional Keynesian anti-recession spending mechanisms and hard-line cuts to programs and services; Rae instituted a "welfare fraud" policing task force and new policies on student loans that ensured students would be saddled with debt years after completing their education. They also began what amounted to an attack on unionized public sector workers, demanding rollbacks and wage freezes.