The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says roughly 55,000 education workers including librarians, custodians and early childhood educators, will stage a provincewide protest Friday.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, says whether workers continue to protest after Friday “will be left up to what happens.”
Education workers they will be off the job despite the Ontario government tabling legislation to impose contracts and ban a strike. Ontario introduced legislation today to impose a contract on education workers and avert a strike that was set to start Friday.
CUPE has said they will explore every avenue to fight the bill, but the government says it intends to use the notwithstanding clause to keep the eventual law in force despite any constitutional challenges.
The clause allows the legislature to override portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a five-year term. The executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says the notwithstanding clause was never meant to be used in contract negotiations.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says students are finally back in class catching up, following two years of pandemic disruptions. Lecce goes on to say they are disappointed that CUPE is refusing to compromise on their demand for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation, representing a price tag close to $19-billion if extended across the sector.
The Opposition parties say the Progressive Conservative government is attempting to bully education workers with legislation that would ban their right to strike and impose a contract on them. Education critic Chandra Pasma says Premier Doug Ford is creating a staffing crisis in schools the same way his government has in hospitals with low-wage policies that will permanently drive workers away. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner says the PC government is going to war with education workers with unconstitutional legislation rather than pay them a fair wage. Both opposition parties say students will be the losers as a result.
The government had been offering raises of two per cent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all others, and the education minister says the new deal would give 2.5 per cent annual raises to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5per cent raises for all others.(The Canadian Press)