Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates is honouring a late Niagara leader’s legacy by tabling Bill 96.
Gates making the move on the 13th anniversary of Peter Kormos’ passing.
Bill 96 renews the call for Ontario to pass anti-scab legislation.
Gates says Kormos stood with working people and fought hard to push for anti-scab legislation because he knew the damage scabs do to workers and their families.
“Peter Kormos was a strong voice for working people in Niagara and across Ontario. From 1988 to 2011, he kept the fight for anti-scab legislation alive at Queen’s Park because he understood what replacement workers do to bargaining, to families, and to communities long after a strike is over.”
Ontario’s first NDP government banned replacement workers in 1992, but that protection was repealed by Premier Mike Harris in 1995.
Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia have anti-scab laws, and now so does the Federal Government.
“It’s time quite frankly to do what Peter always knew was right, said Gates. It was about fairness then. And now it is also about workers knowing that when there is economic uncertainty that the provincial government has their back. We’re asking the Premier to do the exact same thing the Federal Conservatives did to pass anti-scab legislation federally – work with all parties to get it done, said Gates.”
He says honouring Kormos means more than doing right by him, it is about protecting workers and their families right now.
Peter Kormos died on the morning of March 30, 2013, at the age of 60.
Kormos served as a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for 23 years, from 1988 to 2011.
Story credit: Bonnie Heslop
Image credit: ola.org
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