Ontario education workers union to release contract ratification vote results
The union representing Ontario’s 55,000 education workers plans to release the result of its contract ratification vote tomorrow.
Online voting opened on Nov. 24 and is set to conclude Sunday, exactly two weeks after the union’s central bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement with the provincial government. The deal averted a strike, which was set to get underway on Monday, Nov. 21.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Monday at Queen’s Park.
The union, whose members include custodians, education assistants, early childhood educators, and administrative staff who work in the province’s public, Catholic, English, and French school boards, initially planned to unveil the results on Tuesday.
CUPE officials are recommending members ratify the four-year contract, which has an average wage increase of 3.59 per cent in each year.
The terms of the agreement were mandated into a contract for the workers under Bill 28, the “Keeping Students in Class Act”, which used the notwithstanding clause to make it illegal for workers to go on strike. The province rescinded that bill following two days of protests and a promise to return to talks with the union.
If CUPE members vote to reject the latest deal, both sides could go back to the bargaining table and CUPE could give another strike notice.
“This tentative agreement is our first in 10 years to be freely bargained instead of forced on us with legislative interference,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, in a Dec. 2 release.
“For the last week and a half, frontline education workers have been deciding if what’s in this tentative agreement is acceptable. This – workers having the freedom to negotiate and to withdraw our labour if necessary – is democracy in action.”
Walton, an educational assistant from Belleville, has said she does not like the agreement as it doesn't include new staffing guarantees.
Speaking to briefly to reporters following CUPE’s Nov. 20 no-strike announcement, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the agreement is a “positive outcome for all parties.”
“The biggest beneficiary of this deal is our kids, who are going to have some stability and be able to stay in school,” he said.
“We are grateful to all parties for working with the government. … Kids deserve to be in class and I’m proud to confirm they will be tomorrow.”
Lecce, who would not speak to the specifics of the agreement, said there have been some “incremental wins” for both sides and that “every party leaves the table with something that they wanted to advance.”
“The greatest beneficiary of this deal is our kids who are going to be in school. That's what matters. This is not about unions winning or government winning,” he said, calling the agreement a “material win for working parents.”
Lecce said regardless of the ratification vote outcome, the province government intends to stay at the table and would continue to have “good faith negotiations” with Ontario’s four other key education unions that are currently in contract negotiations.
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Toronto’s Katherine DeClerq.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Next 48 hours will be 'extremely challenging' for B.C. wildfire crews near Fort Nelson: officials
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
Southern Ont. man charged with attempted murder in Timmins shooting
One of two men wanted for attempted murder in Timmins has been arrested, while a warrant has been issued for a second suspect, who fled police on foot.