Parents across Ontario are making plans to secure child care as support workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees plan to walk off the Job Friday.Katherine Cheng/The Globe and Mail
Many families across Ontario are scrambling to secure child care for Friday amid potential school closings. Support workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees plan to walk off the job to defy a government bill that imposes a contract and strips them of their right to strike.
The 55,000 workers that belong to CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, or OSBCU, include early childhood educators, caretakers and education assistants who work with special-needs children.
The Toronto District School Board, Canada’s largest, said it had no option but to close schools on Friday because education workers provide critical daily services such as lunchroom supervision, support in kindergarten classes, and safety and security on school grounds. Several other boards also said they were closing schools for health and safety reasons.
Jamie Nicholson, who lives in a rural community outside of Cornwall, said she has to take the day off work to care for her 10-year-old son. Ms. Nicholson, a single mom, works part-time as a personal support worker.
She can manage with a one-day closing, she said, but doesn’t know how she will work if schools remain shut longer. Her son struggled with online learning during the pandemic, especially because the internet was slow and glitchy in her area.
“I fully stand by the workers,” she said, adding that the government needs to find a way to negotiate a deal.
“We need these people, and if we’re not paying them a decent wage, they’re going to find employment elsewhere.”
Toronto mom Yona Nestel enrolled her two children in a day camp for Friday because she and her husband work. She said that while she had to scramble to find child care, she was more upset at how the government treated education workers by imposing a contract and removing their right to strike.
“This is just crossing every line. I don’t know one parent that is supporting the government,” she said. “To see these workers that do so much for our schools and for our students treated so poorly is infuriating.”
Laura Walton, president of OSBCU, has said support staff are among the lowest paid in the education sector, and often work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
OSBCU asked the province for annual raises of about $3.25 an hour, which amounts to roughly 11.7 per cent annually.
The government’s final offer to OSBCU increased wages to 2.5 per cent each year for workers earning less than $43,000, and included a 1.5-per-cent annual hike for those earning more. The union said that amounts to 40 to 67 cents an hour.
On Monday, a day after OSBCU gave the required five days notice of job action, Education Minister Stephen Lecce introduced a bill to impose a four-year contract. The bill also invokes the notwithstanding clause that erases a union’s right to strike or bargain collectively, and prevents any future court challenges.
Mr. Lecce defended his government’s actions, arguing that it was needed to keep children in class after more than two years of COVID-19 learning disruptions.
Heather Hanwell, a parent in Thornhill, said she was “disappointed that this minister refuses to do what it takes to actually minimize learning disruptions.” Instead of a heavy-handed approach, she said, the government should bargain in good faith.
Ms. Hanwell has chronic health issues and works from home. Her district, the York Region District School Board, hasn’t definitively said it will be closing schools, but still advised parents to make alternate child-care arrangements.
Ms. Hanwell said that as she looks for ways to keep her nine-year-old occupied on Friday, they will likely walk over to the picket lines to support education workers.
Amy Moledzki will be keeping her seven-year-old daughter at their Toronto home if education workers walk of the job. Her daughter has severe autism and a global developmental delay.
Her daughter’s classroom has eight children, all of whom have exceptionalities. There are typically five adults in the room, four of whom are support staff.
“You could imagine what would happen if four of those five teachers disappeared. Some of these children are non-verbal, some of them are flight risks like my daughter. It could be very, very dangerous. I don’t know a single special-needs parent who does not support this,” Ms. Moledzki said, referring to the walkout. “These are the people who are right there working with our children day in and day out.”
Not all boards are closing schools on Friday, because their employees belong to different unions or they say the can manage without too much disruption to learning.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, for example, will keep its schools open. Roughly 500 caretakers and maintenance workers belong to OSBCU, and the board said it would deploy non-union staff if needed.