Ontario education union takes step toward strike
A union representing 55,000 Ontario education workers - such as custodians, librarians and early childhood educators - said Friday it has requested what's known as a “no board” report, which could put them in a legal strike position in under three weeks.
Two days of talks between the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the government followed the union's membership returning a 96.5 per cent strike mandate in a recent vote. CUPE had hoped that would move the needle at the table, but the union said Friday that it was at an impasse.
“We've been at the table for two more days waiting for the government and school boards to come back with a reasonable offer, but they refused,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Boards Council of Unions.
“They did not make a single move on key issues. As a result, we have been pushed into a position where we need to request a no board report and up the pressure to reach a negotiated settlement.”
If the conciliator issues a “no board” report, a decision that usually takes a couple of days, it sets a 17-day countdown to the union being in a legal strike position.
Walton has not indicated if education workers would engage in a full strike, start with a work-to-rule campaign, or take some other course of action at that point.
CUPE is looking for annual increases of 11.7 per cent and the government in response has offered raises of two per cent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all other workers.
There are two more days of talks scheduled this month - Oct. 17 and 18.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government is at the table ready to reach a fair deal, and he has called CUPE's demands unreasonable.
“After being back in school for a month, catching up on their learning, I can't imagine parents and kids are sitting down this weekend giving thanks to education unions' relentless pursuit of classroom disruptions,” he wrote in a statement.
Lecce also wrote that the government “will ensure children remain in class. Period.” That echoes a line-in-the-sand sentiment from Ontario Premier Doug Ford earlier this week. When asked about the use of back-to-work legislation in the event of a CUPE strike, Ford told education workers: “Don't force my hand.”
The four major teachers' unions are at various stages of bargaining with the government, after their contracts expired Aug. 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.