CUPE school support staff set to strike again after talks with province break down
CUPE #CUPE
Hundreds of thousands of parents and students should brace for more labour uncertainty in schools after unionized support staff are set to walk off the job again.
Laura Walton, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ school boards bargaining unit, said they have given Premier Doug Ford their five-days’ notice of a potential province-wide strike next Monday.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that the Ford government categorically refused to put money on the table to give students the type of learning environment they need,” Walton said Wednesday, charging the province is not putting enough money into services for students.
“We are not going to let the government overlook your children anymore,” Walton said at a news conference at the downtown Sheraton hotel in remarks aimed directly at parents.
“We are in this fight for you…our goal is to get a deal done,” she added.
While CUPE insisted they were “able to reach a middle ground with the Ford government and the Council of Trustees’ Associations on wages,” it wasn’t enough to keep talks on the rails before they broke off late Tuesday night, Walton said.
“If this government was serious about their plan to catch up (after the COVID-19 pandemic), they’d listen to the workers who do the most to support learners and they’d put an early childhood educator in every kindergarten class and provide more students with the direct support of an educational assistant,” said Walton.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce expressed unhappiness that negotiations have broken down with CUPE — which represents 55,000 custodians, early childhood educators, and other school staff — with a strike notice issued only a few days after talks restarted.
But he said the government will remain at the table in hopes of reaching an agreement in time to avert what Walton said would be a “full strike.”
“It’s an unfair strike on so many children they’re contemplating, especially given that the government significantly increased wages for the lowest paid workers,” he told reporters at the legislature.
“We’ve been working in good faith with the mediator. We believe there is a deal on the table. Of course, we need the union to work with us to get a deal that keeps kids in school,” Lecce added.
“Since resuming talks, we’ve put forward multiple improved offers that would have added hundreds of millions of dollars across the sector, especially for lower income workers. CUPE has rejected all of these offers.”
After Lecce’s remarks, Walton said “we’re going to keep talking” and noted “there’s always going to be pressure tactics when you’re negotiating.”
She said the government is offering the equivalent of roughly a $1 an hour raise to members, or 3.6 per cent annually. That means more than a 14.4 per cent raise over a four-year contract.
“We will not abandon the parents just because Doug Ford waves a loonie in our face. “We are not that easily bought, nor that easily distracted.”
The union is asking for additional staff in schools such as “early childhood educators in every kindergarten class. We wanted (educational assistant) supporting not just students with special needs, but having the appropriate time to do so. We wanted every student to have every possible opportunity to grow and achieve this government said no, over and over.”
She said Ford has “found money to extend a (gas) tax cut. That’s going to cost $1.2 billion so that people can save a few pennies at the pump. I guess he cares about cars and highways that no one wants more than he does about kids education or our provinces health care system.”
Parents and students may feel blindsided by the announcement, which comes a week after Ford agreed to the union’s demand to repeal a controversial bill that used the Constitution’s “notwithstanding clause” to override members’ Charter rights and impose a four-year deal on them.
His Progressive Conservatives finally rescinded Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act, on Monday afternoon with unanimous support from the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens.
Even though Walton had said talks could only begin in earnest once that legislation was off the books, bargaining had been continuing for almost a week aided by mediator William Kaplan.
Those talks were under a media blackout.
CUPE’s support staff walked off the job for two days in spite of the law banning strikes.
Ford’s invoking of the “notwithstanding clause” sparked an outcry from both public and private labour unions with leaders calling him personally to voice their displeasure.
The Tories also withdrew an application to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to rule the strike illegal and did not follow through on threats to fine CUPE members or the union for the two-day job action.
Under Bill 28, daily fines had been set at $4,000 per person and $500,000 for the union — or potentially more than $220 million a day.
Ford has said he wanted “to work co-operatively with CUPE and other partners to make sure we take care of the lowest paid people within CUPE.”
The Star has previously revealed the Tories boosted their wage offer to CUPE to more than 3.5 per cent annually for those earning less than $43,000 and to almost two per cent for those making more.
Both the province and the union publicly disputed those figures, but three sources from camps privy to the talks have confirmed them.
CUPE maintained it is opposed to the idea of two-tier wage increases. It had initially asked about 11 per cent raises a year for all workers, but later cut that demand by about half to around 6 per cent.
In the repealed legislation, the government gave the lowest-paid CUPE members 2.5 per cent annual raises and those making more than $43,000 a 1.5 per cent yearly hike.
Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie SHARE:
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