Mediation between the Ontario government and a union representing 55,000 education workers set to strike Friday has concluded with no agreement reached.
At a press conference on Thursday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said that if CUPE goes ahead with a strike on Friday, it will be considered illegal as the government intends to move forward with its anti-strike legislation .
“It is my hope and expectation that they will show up tomorrow for our children,” Lecce said, saying the union would not rescind its intention to strike when the two sides return to the bargaining table.
“We will use every tool available in our legislation to ensure that children are in school and that disruptions are mitigated for millions of Ontario students.”
In a statement issued late Thursday, CUPE’s negotiating team said it was “informed” that mediation has concluded.
“It is clear that this government never intended to negotiate,” the statement said.
“The time and effort they have spent on Bill 28, which removes the charter rights of education workers, should have been spent on an agreement that would have respected the workers and ensured that the services that students desperately need are guaranteed.”
Lecce says he has ordered school boards to do “everything possible” to keep as many schools open for as many students as possible, and has asked staff to be working to provide “live learning” if CUPE goes ahead with the strike expected
The Ontario government is expected to approve legislation on Thursday that will impose a contract on 55,000 education workers ahead of a planned walkout, a bill the Canadian Civil Liberties Association calls a “disaster for rights and freedoms”.
Bill 28 would make strike action illegal, although the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has said workers will walk off the job Friday regardless. Among those taking part in the strike are preschool teachers, teaching assistants and guards.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) said today that its 8,000 education workers will also walk off the job Friday in solidarity with their CUPE counterparts. Its largest contingent of members is in Peel and York district school boards, which have already said the strike would close schools.
The Toronto District School Board, the largest in the province, says it will keep schools closed for the duration of the strike because it cannot guarantee the safety of students. Many other boards in the province are also planning to close schools or switch to remote learning by Friday.
OPSEU president JP Hornick said the government’s proposed legislation is undemocratic.
“Bill 28 is not just an attack on the collective bargaining rights of education workers, it is an attack on the rights of all workers,” Hornick said in a statement.
That sentiment was echoed by representatives of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), who held an emergency press conference at Queen’s Park this morning.
“By imposing a contract, banning strikes and removing meaningful oversight, the government is violating workers’ Charter right to freedom of association. This is unacceptable and completely unnecessary,” said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, executive director and director general of the organization.
The legislation also includes the Constitution’s without prejudice clause, which allows the legislature to override portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a period of five years. So far, the clause has only been used once in Ontario, also by the current government, and if the legislation passes it will be the second time it has been invoked.
The CCLA called the clause nevertheless a “nuclear weapon” that was meant to be a “rare and exceptional power” and that its use in this case is a major overreach by the province.
Mendelsohn Aviv said the bill would “tramp on workers’ rights” and called on the government to withdraw it immediately.
Premier Doug Ford said today the union left him with “no choice” but to introduce Bill 28. He said students have already suffered two years of pandemic disruptions and the government will use all tools within their reach to ensure that children stay in class. full time
The province’s bill includes heavy fines if workers fail to comply. A Lecce spokesman said the ministry intends to pursue fines should the strike go ahead.
The government initially offered annual increases of two per cent for workers earning less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for others, but says the new four-year deal imposed would give annual increases of 2.5 per cent cent to workers earning less than $43,000 and 1.5 percent. it goes up percent for everyone else.
CUPE has said the framing is inaccurate because the increases actually depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so most workers earning less than $43,000 in a year would not get 2.5 per cent .
CUPE has said its workers, who earn an average of $39,000 a year, are generally the lowest paid in schools and have been seeking annual pay rises of 11.7 per cent.