October 17, 2022 1:38pm
Education workers across the province could legally walk off the job next month.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 55,000 early childhood educators, custodians, librarians, and administration staff announced Monday the Ministry of Labour has issued a “no board report” to its October 7 request. The receipt of the report starts a 17-day waiting period that will end with education workers in a legal strike position on November 3.
However, before workers can hit the picket line they must give five days’ notice of any intended job action.
So far, CUPE has not indicated whether its members will begin with a work-to-rule campaign or engage in a full strike.
The legal strike date came out on the same day the union and the provincial government began three days of mediation talks in an effort to reach a new collective agreement. The two sides, along with mediator William Kaplan, are meeting at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre Hotel. Kaplan was instrumental in helping workers and the province hammer out a new deal in 2019.
The province has offered a 2 per cent annual bump for those earning less than $40,000 a year and a 1.25 per cent yearly wage increase for everyone else. But the union has asked for an annual raise of 11.7 per cent, or $3.25 an hour, for the workers.
In addition to that, the union wants early childhood educators (ECE) in every kindergarten class, 30 minutes of paid prep time per day for educational assistants and ECEs, professional development days for all workers and increased overtime pay.
“We want to reach a negotiated agreement that will guarantee service improvements for students, help solve school boards’ problems hiring and keeping qualified employees, and secure a significant wage increase for the lowest-paid frontline education workers that’s long overdue,” Laura Walton, educational assistant and president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) said in a statement issued last Friday.
She added that the bargaining team is committed to staying at the table “as long as more dates are offered and movement towards an acceptable agreement is made.”
Education workers voted 96.5 per cent in favour of a strike in a vote held earlier this month.
