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424 LABOUR AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW / Unit Public Service Strikes Should workers in essential services be allowed to strike? The right to strike is a powerful tool for workers in their negotiations with employers. Without the threat of a strike, many employers would not feel pressed to negotiate a collective agreement at all, let alone one that confers benefits on employees. Certain workers are consid ered to be so essential to society that they are not allowed to engage in strikes as part of the negotiation process. Firefighters and police officers, for example, are prohibited from striking. But there are no clear criteria for determining who is "essential." Ambulance personnel may not strike, but doctors may-and have in Quebec, Newfoundland, and British Columbia. Are doctors less essential than ambulance paramedics, or do they simply have more political influence? Where essential workers are barred from striking, governments by way of a compromise have often introduced binding arbitration as a means of solving the problem. An arbitrator hears the submissions of the union and the employer and decides the terms of the collective agreement. Otherwise, if an impasse is reached in negotiations, governments may use "back-to- work" legislation to order striking workers to return to their jobs. The following extracts give the viewpoints of some individuals and groups on this issue. When we talk about how essential it is to have ambulance services, if there is someone in need, if there's a pregnant woman who needs to get to the hospital and calls an ambulance, it's essential that that woman be able to get an ambulance. Someone who has a heart attack and calls an ambulance-that's essential. It needs to be there for the people of Ontario. -Tina Molinari, MPP, supporting the Ambulance Services Collective Bargaining Act, 2001, which designated ambulance serv- ices operated within municipalities as essential and removed the right of workers in the service to strike, June 12, 2001 Any time you legislate people back to work who aren't essential peo- ple by any stretch, then you're destroying collective bargaining. I'm not one who wants to do that. -Morley Kells, Ontario Progressive Conservative backbencher, com- menting on back-to-work legislation introduced in the Ontario leg- islature to end the Toronto strike by 24 000 striking workers in the waste-management service industry, July 9, 2002 Our government believes that collective bargaining is the best mecha- nism to resolve this situation. However, given the seriousness of the situation, the concerns raised, and the advice provided by the chiefChapter 14 / ORGANIZING THE WORKFORCE 425 medical officer of health .. we felt it was necessary to take the appro- priate action in order to protect the health and safety of the residents and visitors of Toronto. -Ontario Premier Ernie Eves on introducing back-to-work legisla- tion to end the Toronto garbage strike in July 2002 We cannot treat people poorly-freeze their wages, increase work- loads, refuse to bargain, and ... create the most stressful workplaces- and then claim they are essential. Either the work of public employees is unimportant, and thus cannot be labeled "essential"; or their work is vital, in which case they should be treated and remunerated on a scale that properly reflects their importance to a healthy and caring society-thereby eliminating the need to strike. Take your pick, but we cannot have it both ways. ... When the withdrawal of a service threat- ens life and limb, some restriction on strike activity is justified. But when it is merely inconvenient, or even temporarily costly, then super- seding the right to strike represents a major blow to a fundamental democratic principle. -Seth Klein, Director, BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, "Balancing Two Essentials-Public Services and the Right to Strike," http://www.policyalternatives.ca/bc/opinion43.html Our position is the same as that of the United Nations: essential serv- ices protect life and limb. While education is vital and important, it's not an essential service. -David Chudnovsky, President, BC Teachers' Federation, in a joint news release by the British Columbia Nurses' Union, British Columbia Teachers' Federation, and Canadian Union of Public Employees, BC Division, November 23, 2001 Last night [ April 9] the OPSEU [Ontario Public Service Employees Union] turned down a government offer to re-open eight provincial schools for Deaf, Blind, Deafblind, and Learning Disabled Students. Hon. Minister [David] Tsubouchi, Chair of Management Board Secre- tariat states, "A week ago we asked OPSEU to declare these workers essential so that the provincial schools could reopen and families could get their children back into the classrooms. The union has rejected their (government) offer. As a result the schools will remain closed." The Ontario Association of the Deaf is deeply concerned ... with the strike which is in its fifth week. This is jeopardizing students' lives. Students have stated they will not be able to attend college/university in the Fall because of the strike. -Ontario Association of the Deaf, press release, April 10, 2002