The IAM has joined several affiliate unions under the umbrella of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) to coordinate, and mount a legal challenge to Bill 195.
Bill 195, “Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020”, which received Royal Assent July 21, 2020, replaced the provincial emergency declaration made earlier in March gave the Ford Conservative government the power to change, revoke, and extend emergency measures to cabinet, rather than the legislature, for up to two years.
Bill 195 threatens to interfere with the constitutionally guaranteed collective bargaining rights of workers across the province; it allows employers to override collective agreements, including the grievance and arbitration process.
Under Bill 195:
- Vacations can be cancelled
- Shifts can be changed (from days to nights for example)
- Hours of work can be changed
- Leaves of absence can be denied or cancelled
- Workers can be reassigned to another site, and contractors and volunteers can be brought in to do their work
- Jobs can be eliminated.
Workers understand that this pandemic has changed the way we live and the way we work, however after the sacrifices made by workers it’s deplorable that this is the way the Ford conservative government pays back our front line workers, by stripping them of their rights,
Rights that were achieved through the collective bargaining process.
Rights that are now being taken away by this government.
THIS IS WRONG – RESTORE WORKERS RIGHTS –WITHDRAW BILL 195
