Liberals to repeal Bill 115 Wednesday
Posted Jan 21, 2013 08:15:29 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario Liberals will repeal Bill 115
The Ontario Liberals have announced they will repeal Bill 115, the controversial law that imposed contracts on public school teachers and limited their ability to strike.
The Liberals say the change will take effect on Wednesday.
After the government imposed the legislation on about 126-thousand teachers and education workers, the Liberals promised to repeal it.
The government says the move is “promoting goodwill and stability” in Ontario schools by addressing a key concern of the two teachers’ unions.
President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation of Waterloo, Rob Gascho isn’t happy with this move, “This is insulting as a gesture, frankly. I guess they think it will convince the public that everything is okay now. It changes absolutely nothing, they’ve already imposed things under the bill, repealing it now will not undo any of that and it will not restore collective bargaining.”
Gascho adds, “It changes nothing. I guess if they think it’s going to clear the air before the leadership convention…not at all. What has to happen, this Premier and Minister (Education) need to go and whoever comes in next needs to restore real collective bargaining rights. That’s what this is about.”
“They’ve already used the provisions of the bill. So by all means, repeal the bill, but you have to rescind the actions that you took under it and have real collective bargaining.”
Education Minister Laurel Broten says the change won’t affect the contracts that are already in place.
Bill 115 sparked a major protest by unions that resulted in rotating strikes by elementary teachers and withdrawal of extracurricular activities by high school teachers.
The law, which passed in September, also alienated a powerful group that’s helped the Liberals get re-elected over the last nine years.
