CUPE officials say none of their members will be at work on Friday and will hold a province-wide protest regardless of Ontario’s proposed anti-strike legislation.
At a news conference Monday, the union representing about 55,000 Ontario education workers said members will “withdraw their labour” in protest of the move by the province, which they called a “monstrous overreach.”
The union held the news conference hours after the provincial government announced it plans to bring in legislation to block the potential job action.
The Ontario government introduced legislation Monday 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 said it intends to use the notwithstanding clause to keep the eventual law in force despite any constitutional challenges.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce is speaking with reporters at 2 p.m. ET. You can watch his remarks live above.
As for whether the job action will run longer than one day, union officials said that remains to be seen.
The union also said it will come up with financial support for any consequences that workers might face for striking in the face of the legislation.
On Sunday, education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) gave the required five days’ notice for job action, positioning its members — including educational assistants, custodians and early childhood educators, but not teachers — to go on full strike as early as Friday.
Several Ontario school boards have said they will shut down schools if support staff withdraw their services.
The anti-strike legislation bound for Queen’s Park on Monday would block that job action, but it’s unclear for how long.
The government and education workers returned to the bargaining table Sunday afternoon but there doesn’t appear to have been any progress since.
Officials said the province’s offer put forward Sunday would have provided only a nickel more for each worker, giving the union an ultimatum. Instead of the government holding a negotiation, officials said they learned the government intended to legislate against a strike if the union didn’t acquiesce.
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 1.5 per cent raises for all others.
“If Stephen Lecce cared about kids, he wouldn’t have handed $200 to parents,” said CUPE member Laura Walton, dressed in a Rosie the Riveter Halloween costume, an American character representing women who worked in factories and shipyards during the First World War — a choice she said was intended to send a message.
Still, she said, “negotiations aren’t done.”
