By resisting the back-to-work order, each union member faced fines of up to $1,000 a day. Since a tentative deal has been reached, this could tilt the scales towards unions who disregard federal use of Section 107.
Yesterday, Mark Hancock, CUPE’s national president, stood in front of dozens of reporters outside Toronto-Pearson airport, undeterred.
“If it means folks like me going to jail, so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it,” he said. Hancock insisted he does not believe the government’s order will survive a court challenge, which could take up to 10 years to go through the legal system — and now that a tentative deal has been made it is unclear whether charges will be pursued.
Yeah, if you’re considered too essential to strike, then your employer should be bending over backwards to ensure you’re not even considering it.
Otherwise the label “essential” becomes a weapon to use against you if all it means is the government can side with your employer to force you back to work—if I’m an employer, why would I even bother negotiating in good faith if I had that in my back pocket?
It almost worked, too, if not for some serious guts on the part of the workers and their union.