As Ottawa freezes under ice this winter, a choir of disgruntled voices call for OC Transpo to be declared an essential service.
But this tag of “essentiality” will limit the workers’ rights on the job far longer than the extent of this strike. Before throwing support behind this motion, people should consider what it will mean for the workers of OC Transpo.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that “everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.” However, in this long and ongoing battle between the city and the striking OC Transpo workers, both sides are being exposed to such callousness. And Ottawa residents are caught in the middle.
In the forced vote ordered by Federal Labour Minister Rona Ambrose, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, some
2,300 workers, rejected the city’s latest contract offer to return to work by nearly three-to-one.
In June 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the charter protects the collective bargaining rights of employees — of which striking is a key element.
Bargaining agreements between unions and employers give power to employees to regulate what terms they are willing to work under. And since these rights are protected, interference with them must be justified against the protection provided by the charter.
The collective agreements and the bargaining rights of workers are more essential than a public service. Declaring OC Transpo essential infringes on the rights of transit workers, despite the inconvenience felt by those left in the cold by the strike.
According to the Canadian Labour Code, in order to declare the service ‘essential’ it must be necessary to prevent immediate and serious danger to the health or safety of the public. Significantly, for workers in these sectors, striking becomes illegal and the charter’s protection is disparaged.
Services that qualify as essential differ across the nation. According to the Public Service Labour Relations Act, government programs that may be considered essential include border safety, correctional services, food inspection and health care. In Ontario, firefighters and nurses are are considered essential, and they may not lawfully walk off the job. Without these services, the safety of Ontarians would be jeopardized. But the immediate danger posed by striking transit workers is not so obvious.
Five weeks into the strike, Ambrose asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (who has the authority to declare OC Transpo an essential service) to consider the transit strike a danger to public safety.
The board has the power to issue cease and desist orders in cases of unlawful strikes. To make their decision they called on stranded citizens to detail the ways in which their health and safety have been impeded.
To date, the board has received over 2,000 responses.
A growing online petition supporting the declaration of transport as an essential service colourfully details a collective distaste for the strike.
Yet, the role of the board is to remain neutral and fair in their decision. So, elaborate public complaints are not an effective catalyst in this instance — immediate danger to public safety must be proven.
Some citizens say that without access to public transport they are being denied access to education, necessary health services and in extreme cases have lost their employment.
But because nothing fatal or dangerous has occurred as a direct result of the strike, the suggestion that the safety of the public is in jeopardy is hard to justify. Inconvenience does not equal imperil. Having no public transport to health care services is not the same as than having no health care services at all.
Rather than making a submission to the board undermining legislature that protects collective bargaining agreements, the city council persists in exploring alternate ways to ease the inconvenience for the stranded.
They have made transport allowances in terms of free parking, expanded traffic lanes and taxi vouchers for the elusively defined “vulnerable” citizens of Ottawa. Their reluctance to support this bid shows that it may not be the best solution.
This strike is undeniably inconvenient. But a worker’s right to strike is entrenched in Canada’s charter. It’s a significant right that workers outside of essential services enjoy.
To declare OC Transpo an essential service because we want it rather than depend upon it will affect transport workers’ rights for a long time to come — well beyond the extent of the current strike.
With so much at stake for the protection of OC Transpo rights at work, rather than demand transportation be declared an essential service, it might prove best to just ride this one out.