CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions president Laura Walton, centre, is flanked by national president Mark Hancock, left, and Ontario president Fred Hahn as she speaks to the media in Toronto on Nov. 16.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario education support workers have threatened to go on strike starting Monday, as talks with the provincial government once again reached an impasse despite coming to an agreement on wages.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 55,000 school workers, including caretakers, education assistants and other support staff, issued its required five days’ strike notice on Wednesday.
The union said the parties found a “middle ground” on wages, which has been the main point of contention during negotiations, but that the government refuses to invest in services for students and families.
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government backed away from its two-tiered wage proposal to provide a larger increase for lower-income staff and instead offered all workers a $1-an-hour wage hike each year of the four-year contract, amounting to an average annual increase of 3.59 per cent.
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A strike would shutter many schools across the province and prompt a move to online learning. In a letter to families Wednesday, the Toronto Catholic District School Board said it would move to remote synchronous learning as of Monday if CUPE withdraws its services.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Canada’s largest, said all schools will be closed to in-person learning if workers strike and teachers would instruct remotely. Both school boards also shut their schools for two days when workers walked off the job earlier this month in defiance of government legislation.
Earlier this week, the government repealed the controversial legislation, Bill 28, that imposed a contract on education workers and used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to ban their right to strike.
Laura Walton, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, an affiliate of CUPE, said the revised wage offer was a “win for workers,” but doesn’t address the need of more supports for students.
She said the union is looking for higher staffing levels and an early childhood educator in every kindergarten classroom, not just classes that have more than 15 students. She estimated that this would cost the province about $38-million annually to implement.
“This was never just about wages,” Ms. Walton said at a news conference. “We will not abandon parents just because Doug Ford waves a loonie in our face.”
Education Minister Stephen Lecce characterized Wednesday’s strike notice as unfair to students and families who have faced more than two years of pandemic-related school disruptions. He said the government made a “reasonable” offer that included $335-million more in worker wages than the contract imposed under Bill 28. That deal had annual wage hikes of 2.5 per cent for workers earning less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent for those making more.
“This is not fair to children, to working parents, to our economy,” Mr. Lecce told reporters Wednesday morning at Queen’s Park.
Parents are concerned about the impact a potential strike could have on children who have already faced disruptions, especially those requiring learning supports.
Toronto mom Mairead Cavanagh said she supports education workers, who help her special-needs son. But the potential of a strike makes her nervous. She blames the government, saying that it is not doing enough to add supports for vulnerable children.
Her son, Maleek, 14, has a syndrome that causes airway issues and he breathes with the help of a tracheostomy. Maleek is also deaf. He is enrolled at Sir William Osler High School, one of a handful of TDSB congregate schools for children with complex developmental and physical disabilities.
“He really relies on the stability and routine of those school supports,” Ms. Cavanagh said. “We’re really at a loss” if schools close.
Anna Sidiropoulos, a mother of three children in TDSB schools, said she’s very concerned about further disruptions to in-person learning and called for both sides to be flexible in order to keep students in class.
“It makes me a little bit worried. Is it going to keep flipping to a new issue every time they come to an agreement? That’s kind of in the back of my head. I really hope not,” she said.
Asked if the government would introduce back-to-work legislation to end a strike, Mr. Lecce said negotiations would continue to try and reach a deal. Talks between the parties, with the help of a mediator, are expected to resume later this week.
CUPE previously gave strike notice on Oct. 30 after contract talks reached an impasse, which led to the government introducing Bill 28.
The legislation sparked widespread condemnation in the labour movement, including from private-sector unions that the government counts as supporters, as well as from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
The weekend after the bill was passed, labour leaders from across the country huddled in hours-long virtual conference calls to plan potential nationwide protests that would have temporarily shut down the province’s auto plants, the country’s ports and even the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island.
CUPE members returned to work after the government vowed to repeal the legislation and restart talks.