Striking education support workers get government to step back on Bill 28

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Thousands of students have returned to classes and the local Canadian Union of Public Employees leadership is pleased with the stand members took to ensure a fairly negotiated contract.

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“We are very, very proud workers stood up for our rights,” said Michele LaLonge-Davey, president of CUPE Local 1268, which represents education assistants, early childhood educators and custodian staff with the Lambton Kent District School Board.

Local education support workers with the public, Catholic and French Catholic school boards were among the 55,000 CUPE members who went on strike Nov. 4, the day after the Ford government used the notwithstanding clause as part of Bill 28 to legislate an imposed contract for the unionized workers.

The strike continued throughout the day Monday, even after Premier Doug Ford announced around noon that a deal was reached to end the strike action.

“CUPE has agreed to withdraw their strike action and come back to the negotiating table,” Ford said in a statement. “In return, at the earliest opportunity, we will revoke Bill 28 in its entirety and be at the table so that kids can return to the classroom after two difficult years.

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“As we have always said and called for, kids need to be back in the classroom where they belong.”

Dave Geroux, president of CUPE Local 4168, which represents St. Clair Catholic education support workers, said the government’s decision to repeal the legislation and return to the bargaining table was a result to the actions of CUPE members and the support of other unions.

“I am 100 per cent confident that is the only reason that Ford has moved,” he said.

The notwithstanding clause, which allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to override charter-guaranteed rights, had never been used before in labour relations, and Geroux said Ford’s legislation set a dangerous precedent.

“I think every other union and every other worker recognized that,” he said. “It’s something we could not stand for.”

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LaLonge-Davey said CUPE and its supporters had “no choice” but to take a stand against the rare use of the clause.

“And you see with the support of the ‘House of Labour,’ not only in the province, the whole country has come together with us,” LaLonge-Davey added. “The win in this is the increased engagement of worker power and it’s never going to stop again.

“We’ve got this. We’re confident.”

Both Geroux and LaLonge-Davey said they were pleased the government committed to repealing Bill 28 but remain cautiously optimistic.

“We have a path,” LaLonge-Davey said. “We’re prepared to be collaborative, mature adults and bargain with this government in good faith.

“If they stray, we have a path to be back on the street and we will exercise that in nine seconds flat.”

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School boards sent letters to families on Monday afternoon to inform them schools would be reopening Tuesday.

Compensation is a key issue when both sides return to the bargaining table.

The average education support worker in Ontario makes roughly $39,000. Between 2012 and 2021, their wages rose about 8.5 per cent.

Canada’s inflation rate over that same period was more than 17 per cent.

The government originally offered raises of two per cent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all others, but Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the imposed four-year deal would give 2.5 per cent annual raises to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent raises for all others.

CUPE has said that framing is not accurate since the raises hinge on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers who earn less than $43,000 in a year wouldn’t receive a 2.5 per cent increase.

CUPE has said its workers are generally the lowest paid in schools and had been seeking annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent.

-With files from Tom Morrison and Canadian Press

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