NDP Leader Howard Hampton says Dalton McGuinty’s back-to-work legislation for York’s striking education workers sets a dangerous precedent for future labour negotiations and does nothing for students.

“By ramming through this bill, the McGuinty government has sent a clear message to Ontario employers that they can avoid bargaining in good faith, knowing that the government will eventually let them off the hook by forcing workers back to work,” said Hampton.

The legislation also doesn’t address the McGuinty government’s chronic underfunding of Ontario’s post-secondary education institutions, he said.

“Merely sending students back to class at York University doesn’t change the fact Ontario is dead last in Canada when it comes to funding our universities. It doesn’t change the fact that cash-strapped universities are being forced to rely on more part-time and contract teachers. Ontario students will not benefit one iota from what’s happened because the McGuinty government has failed to create campuses and workplaces that are conducive to learning,” said Hampton.

In the York case, Hampton noted that the McGuinty government allowed the university administration to effectively sabotage the bargaining process through its unwillingness to bargain in good faith during the three-month strike.

“The York administration has been rewarded for the contempt it showed for the collective bargaining process. And it’s the workers and the students who are left out in the cold while Dalton McGuinty continues to underfund their university,” said Hampton.