In a powerful show of solidarity, striking workers from community, health and social services descended on Ford Fest today to send a clear message to Premier Ford: Do the right thing: fund our services, deliver stolen wages, and end the strike!
More than 850 workers turned out to the Premier’s signature annual event after over four weeks of being dodged by Ford and his MPPs. Despite repeated meeting denials and closed offices, workers have refused to back down. When Ford looked out from his stage, he was met by a sea of striking workers in purple shirts who turned their backs on him in a spontaneous and symbolic act of protest.
Fed up with being ignored by this government, members raised their voices calling for wage justice and funding for community and social services.
Worth Fighting For dominated all news coverage of the event.
The Premier swiftly left the stage and the event, citing security concerns. Despite being completely drowned out and the wave of media covering the disruption, the Premier later took to social media to praise the event, calling it a roaring success.
“Ford Fest in Scarborough was an incredible evening spent with friends, families and supporters from across Ontario! Thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a success,” he wrote in a caption on a video that was remarkably free of loud ‘boos’.
Later on in the weekend, other PC MPPs took to social media posting about the success of the event. Attorney General Doug Downey and MPP David Smith’s X accounts posted several pictures from the event on Saturday, including a birds-eye-view of the crowd near the main stage depicting mostly blue shirts.
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JP Hornick, president of OPSEU, said the goal was to gather hundreds of workers to talk to constituents, hand out flyers and sign petitions to bring awareness to how community, health and social service workers have been on strike for five weeks now because it’s a sector “where the funding has been suffocated” by the province.
The booing and chanting “was not planned. That was our workers just … frustrated as hell,” Hornick said. “What we hope the premier took away is a very clear message that we are not content and we are not going away.”
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“These are people who work with the most vulnerable families and communities: kids with autism, folks with developmental disabilities, women leaving violence, and folks with insecure housing,” Hornick said.
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“When Ford looked out from his stage, he was met by a sea of striking workers in purple shirts, impossible to ignore, refusing to back down from the fight for the future of the services our communities rely on,” the union said.
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“This is a sector where the funding has been suffocated by this government,” Hornick said. “If they can spend (nearly) $30 million on a private jet that benefits one man, I don’t see why they can’t spend the $80 million that’s necessary that would serve hundreds of thousands of Ontarians.”
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