CUPE starts wildcat strike as Doug Ford government appeals to labour board to stop it
CUPE #CUPE
As thousands of striking school support workers protest at Queen’s Park and across the province, the government is before the labour relations board trying to put a stop to CUPE’s job action.
“Immediately following proclamation of the Keeping Students in Class Act (Thursday afternoon), we filed a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board in response to CUPE’s illegal strike action,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a statement Friday morning.
A hearing began late Thursday — at 10 p.m. — and is to continue Friday afternoon.
“Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so,” Lecce also said.
Some 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees walked off the job Friday after Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives rammed through controversial legislation overriding Charter rights and imposing a four-year contract on them.
Friday’s strike has shut down schools in many, but not all, boards across the province where CUPE represents custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants or child and youth workers, and kids are learning from home.
Laura Walton, president of the Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, has warned parents the strike will go on until the province sits down and negotiates a collective agreement.
However, workers face huge fines for the job action — $4,000 per member per day, and $500,000 daily for the union — though Walton has said the union will refuse to pay.
Talks collapsed between the two sides on Thursday. Both parties had moved from their original demands on wages, with CUPE slashing its proposal of roughly 11 per cent a year to about six, and the government having moved from raises of 2 per cent to up to 2.5 annually over four years for the lowest-paid union members, and from 1.25 to 1.5 for those earning more than $43,000.
Walton has said the union “tried everything” to get a deal.
“We moved as much as our members could possibly move, understanding that they have bills to pay,” said Walton, adding that talks ended because “this government was looking to find a bargain basement deal.”
Support staff — including custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants and library technicians — are protesting outside Progressive Conservative MPPs’ offices across the province on Friday, and will rally at Queen’s Park.
Other labour union members are expected to join them.
Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said “it is extremely disappointing that we have not been able to reach a negotiated agreement at this time among CUPE, the Crown and the employer.”
“As a result of the anticipated strike action, schools in many of our member boards will be forced to close to students for in-person instruction (Friday), and for the duration of this strike action by CUPE members,” Abraham said Thursday.
“We hope this disruption is short-lived and that we can get back to in-person learning as soon as possible.”
Lecce has reminded teachers, who are members of other unions, that they are expected to be at work Friday. A ministry memo also said they should provide live online classes as opposed to providing work for kids to do at home.
The Toronto public and Catholic boards have notified parents that schools will be closed Friday and every day there is job action.
In an email to parents, the Toronto District School Board said if the job action continues, starting Monday teachers need to livestream their lessons and interact virtually with students.
On Thursday, the Tories pushed through the Keeping Students in Class Act — which was opposed by the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens — using the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to override Charter rights.
The premier was conspicuously absent from the vote, which passed to shouts of “shame” from CUPE members in the public gallery above.
Invoking the notwithstanding clause for just the second time in Ontario history — Ford last used it to place limits on pre-election advertising by unions and other third-party groups in June 2021 — has triggered controversy across the country.
In a call Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the premier it “is wrong and inappropriate, and should only ever be used in the most exceptional of circumstances.”
However, Ford countered that he “made clear that shutting down classrooms would have an unacceptable impact on students who are already struggling after two years of pandemic disruption.”
Walton said how the union can afford to pay the fines “will be determined as we move forward,” and CUPE has asked other labour groups to pitch in. However, she later said the union does not intend to pay them. Workers who receive fines have been told to inform their union representatives.
The union is in the process of seeking a legal opinion, and questions whether the government will press ahead with fines given the sheer number would clog the court system.
School boards have confirmed that CUPE workers — and anyone else who doesn’t show up for work — will be docked pay for every day they are off the job.
They will receive strike pay.
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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