Liberal-NDP coalition stinks in Toronto L pect of a Liberal-NDP coalition federal govern­

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Last winter there was much ado about the pros­ ment. According to Conservatives, it would have violated democracy and bankrupted the state. According to NDP officials, it would have mitigated the economic crisis and provided a very progressive alternative to Harper. The truth is that both claims were wrong.

Do you want to know what a Liberal-NDP govern­ ment would be like? Look no farther than the malodor­ ous mess in Toronto. Among other things, the unholy alliance that governs Canada’s biggest city allowed basic services to erode, gave the rich a tax holiday, pro­ voked a civic workers’ strike and led a frontal assault on labour’s past gains.

Mayor David Miller, a former NDP member, backed by a coalition of Liberal and NDP city councillors, forced a strike on 30,000 inside and outside city workers— including ambulance, parks and recreation, child-care, water, welfare, and garbage-collection workers (see above photo). How? By trying to jam over 110 pages of labour concessions down their throats. The proposed take-aways included attacks on seniority rights, limits on transfer and promotion rights, a freeze on cost of living increases, a two-tier wage structure, and an end to banking sick days.

Over 70 per cent of the workforce, represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Locals 79 and 416, are women. The average annual income for city workers is $40,000. None have severence pay. Most of them do not enjoy compensation at retirement for unused sick days -- the hot button issue that was disingenously used to portray the municipal workers as ‘privileged’.

The result of the strike, which ended on July 31 after 40 days, is a 6 per cent raise over three years, one more designated holiday, wage protection for any workers moved to a lower-rated position, pay for rest breaks missed (in courts, children’s services and homes), im­ proved vision care, and a long-term phase-out of the banked sick time (current full-time staff can continue to accrue sick days, or cash them in now, or have their sick days frozen, to draw upon as needed, with a buy­ out at normal termination; no sick days banking for new hires, who gain a short-term disability plan).

In other words, CUPE members withstood most of the city’s take-away demands, and traded off a conces­ continue to deteriorate.

The Toronto Board of Trade lobbies the city to con­ tract-out more city services and work, and to privatize capital assets like Toronto Hydro, Enwave and the To­ ronto Parking Authority (worth over $60 billion). But private services end up costing consumers more, and a one-time cash injection from an asset sale doesn’t solve an ongoing under-funding crisis.

So the city turned to cutting its wage bill. It imposed an annual zero, 1, and 1 per cent raise on its non-union staff, and sought to limit unionized municipal workers to a similar increase, and to curtail their benefits to boot. City councillors take home over $99,000 a year. They gave themselves a 2.4 per cent raise, and negoti­ ated (or approved arbitrated) yearly increases of 3 per cent for police, firefighters, public housing, port, and parking authority workers.

Did David Miller target CUPE members to win brown­ ie points with the provincial Liberals? Perhaps he has an eye on an Ontario cabinet position. Or perhaps this is just an inescapable consequence of his alliance with, and dependence upon, large corporate and financial interests.

Regardless, Miller’s ‘progressive coalition’ of New Democrats and Liberals is following in the footsteps of ‘third way’ governments led by Tony Blair, Bill Clin­ ton, and Bob Rae. It tries to make workers pay for the crises of capitalism that we did not cause. Moreover, Toronto city bosses are taking advantage of the cur­ rent economic depression to weaken unions and fur­ ther lower the standard of living of all working people.

Miller’s Liberal-NDP coalition was backed by the To­ ronto and District Labour Council at the 2007 munici­ pal election.

This is what you get when Labour subordinates its or­ ganization and interests to a capitalist coalition. While the NDP has committed many crimes when it held the reigns of government on its own, the party can be held accountable by its Labour and popular base when the latter are organized to fight for a Workers’ Agenda. The Liberal Party, on the other hand, is accountable only to Bay Street.

For that reason it is crucial that working people break the NDP councillors from the Miller regime at Toronto City Hall, oppose an NDP alliance with any capitalist party, and fight for NDP governments com­ mitted to socialist policies at all levels. That is the per­ spective needed, combined with mass action, includ­ ing sympathy strikes, in support of workers resisting concessions. That’s how to defend Labour’s gains and to make Capital pay for the crisis it created. n