An NDP government would not use back-to-work legislation to send any striking employees back to their jobs, New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath says.“It’s very much against our values,” she said Tuesday, citing her party’s roots in the labour movement during a wide-ranging, one-hour session with the Star’s editorial board streamed live on the internet.Horwath added “I can’t imagine there would be” a scenario where such a strategy would be employed, as Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government did last fall during a lingering strike by community college instructors when the school term was at risk for students.The NDP leader, who has been gaining momentum in the June 7 election campaign and holding second place in public opinion polls behind Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, blamed the government for moves that “tightened up” funding for eolleges and universities. “If we had been better funding these institutions, we wouldn’t have the labour strike that we have,” added Horwath, whom the Liberals slammed in a press release Tuesday for blocking back-to-work legislation two weeks ago for a strike at York University.“While no one wants or likes to order parties back to work, the public interest sometimes demands the government’s leadership when all else fails,” said a statement from the Liberal campaign.Horwath maintained back-to-work legislation is a “heavy hammer” that abrogates the constitutional rights of workers to collective bargaining.“That’s something that I don’t favour.”In past years, the NDP have voted against sending striking TTC workers back to their jobs, but now that the transit agency has been deemed an essential service and are not allowed to strike, Horwath said she would not restore that right.
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