Make It Fair – Call your MPP

The Make It Fair campaign is at a crucial juncture. The Ontario government’s plan to implement many of the Make It Fair campaign’s demands recently made it into the media. Now the big business lobby is putting pressure on the government to reverse course. We need to show our MPPs that people support fairness at work, not the big business agenda of low-waged, precarious work. It’s easier than ever to call your MPP. Just click here and follow the instructions to call your MPP now.

CLICK HERE TO CALL YOUR MPP NOW

Talking Points

To make it easier for you to call your MPP, here are some talking points you can use to help guide you through your call.

Hi, my name is [your name] , I live in [name of riding] and I’m calling to speak with [name of the MPP].

I’d like to speak with her about the government’s plans for the Ontario Labour Relations Act and the Employment Standards Act.

[You are unlikely to get the MPP right away. If you do not, leave a message and ask for a call back from the MPP or a constituency assistant…provide your contact details and note that the subject of your call is labour law reform.]

I’m concerned about the quality of employment in Ontario. More and more jobs are part-time, short-term and low-paid. Job security is elusive. Workers need much more reasonable ways to choose and keep a union, as well as better working conditions through improved employment standards.

The government knows that the Ontario Labour Relations Act and the Employment Standards Act need to be modernized and repaired. In a recent Toronto Star article, Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said that the employee-employer relationship “has become an unbalanced relationship where the employer holds all the cards”.

I agree with that 100%, so I expect the government to aim very high in these planned reforms.

Unions are a path toward better, more stable jobs and toward less inequality in our province.  I hope I can count on you, as my MPP, to push for these changes.  The crisis facing employees in Ontario will not be fixed with half-measures.

Thanks for your time.

 

Specific Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act changes you can mention to your MPP

  • Invest in stronger enforcement of the Employment Standards and Labour Relations Acts and prosecute employers who flout the law.
  • Extend just cause protection within the LRA and to ESA.
  • Provide a framework for broader-based bargaining.
  • Restore card-check certification; provide early disclosure of workplace information (ie., employee lists and related information); neutral, online or telephone voting; remedial certification; and expedited and extended power to reinstate employees illegally discharged during organizing efforts and before the first agreement.
  • Provide better access to first contract arbitration.
  • Extend successor rights to protect employees’ bargaining rights and collective agreements in the case of contract flipping.
  • Consolidate bargaining units in the case of the same certified bargaining agent.
  • Guarantee the right to strike – including prohibiting the use of replacement workers; safeguarding the rights of workers who have been involved in a labour dispute (including reinstatement after six months and prohibiting employers from attempting to “clean house” after a strike).
  •  Mandate paid leave for all domestic and sexual violence survivors.
  • Legislate at least seven (7) paid sick days, extend job-protection to all workplaces for 10 days of unpaid emergency leave and bring Ontario up to the national standard by providing three weeks of paid vacation to all workers.
  • End exemptions or exceptions in the Employment Standards Act (ESA) and Labour Relations Act (LRA) – the rules must apply to everyone and protect everyone.
  • Expand the definition of employer in both the ESA and LRA, including joint and several liability as well as related and joint employers.
  • Legislate equal pay and benefits for equal work (including temporary agency, part-time, casual and contract workers) and eliminate sub-minimum wage rates established in the ESA.
  • Provide at least two weeks of advanced scheduling notice.
  • Expand the definition of employee to stop the misclassification of workers.
  • I also fully support increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.