Striking Steelworkers Local 6500 members were among those ejected from the gallery of the Ontario legislature Oct. 8 during a debate about proposed anti-scab legislation.
About 70 members of the union were in Toronto to attend a rally in support of the legislation, and were later invited to sit in the gallery to watch the vote on the private member's bill.
The bill, introduced by New Democrat Welland MPP Peter Kormos, was defeated in second reading that day.
“We had maybe 200 people listening to the debate, but after awhile they couldn't take it anymore, especially when one Liberal member was really, really ignorant in a comment,” said Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas. “They got thrown out by security.”
Gélinas said the bill would have banned any sort of replacement worker from taking strikers' jobs, including those who already work for the company in question.
In jurisdictions where anti-scab legislation exists, such as Quebec and British Columbia, strikes are significantly shorter because company owners have an incentive to go back to the bargaining table, she said.
Ontario had such legislation during the early 1990s when the NDP were in power, but the legislation was repealed in 1995 shortly after the Conservatives won the election, said Gélinas.
