By Haldimand Press Staff
HALDIMAND—Schools may be shutting their doors on Friday, November 4, 2022 as the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 school support staff, announced an upcoming withdrawal of services since ongoing labour negotiations have seen little progress.
After CUPE submitted the required five days notice for such a job action, the Ontario government tabled the Keeping Students in Schools Act on October 31, which Education Minister Stephen Lecce said will “terminate any ongoing strike” and impose a new four-year collective agreement.
Lecce said they would have preferred a “voluntary agreement” but felt the bill was the only way to keep students in classrooms after two years of pandemic disruption.
However, CUPE Ontario released a statement on Monday that “education workers and the communities that rely on the delivery of their services will not take the Ford Conservatives’ bully tactics”.
“On Friday, regardless of what this legislation says, our members will be engaging in a province-wide protest. That means no CUPE education workers will be at work. Instead, we will be taking a stand for public education for ourselves and for our future,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “Enough is enough. We may in fact challenge this in court, but we are first going to challenge it in our communities. We are not going to allow our rights to be legislated away.”
The government has indicated it will invoke the notwithstanding clause to protect the bill from potential legal challenges. The clause allows the legislature to override portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a five-year term.
Speaking with CBC, Lecce said they are using “all the tools at our disposal to avert a strike and a disruption” and that “the alternative is to do frankly nothing”
Prime Minister Trudeau condemned the use of the clause on Tuesday morning, following legislature beginning early at 5 a.m. as the Ford government hopes to push through the new bill, and its notwithstanding clause, by Thursday.
“Using the notwithstanding clause to suspend workers’ rights is wrong” said Trudeau. “The suspension of peoples’ rights is something that you should only do in the most exceptional circumstances, and I really hope that all politicians call out the overuse of the notwithstanding clause to suspend peoples’ rights and freedoms.”
Other federal ministers spoke against the use of the clause, with Federal Justice Minister David Lametti stating his office is considering how they could challenge the province’s use of the clause.
If passed, the bill could see fines issued against any individual or bargaining agency that either participates in a strike or “authorizes or threatens to call or authorize a strike.” The maximum fine is $4,000 per day for individuals and up to $500,000 against the union itself.
Hahn said that if the bill is enacted into law prior to Friday and it becomes illegal to strike, members will participate in a “political protest” instead. A rally was also held on Tuesday at the Ministry of Labour to protest the proposed bill, organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour.
The school staff members affected include custodians, early childhood educators, education assistants, food technicians, information technology staff, and administration staff. While CUPE has only announced the protest for Friday as of publication, there remained a possibility that it could be extended.
The workers have been without a collective agreement since August 31, with negotiations remaining unsuccessful. CUPE is seeking a yearly wage increase of $3.25/hour (11.7%), early childhood educators in every kindergarten class, five additional paid days before the start of the school year, 30 minutes of paid daily prep time, an increase in overtime pay, and a $100 million investment in new job creation, among other items. The province’s latest offer, proposed on Sunday afternoon, is a four-year deal that includes a 2.5% annual raise for workers making under $43,000 and a 1.5% annual raise above that threshold. This is up slightly from their initial offer of 2% for workers making under $40,000 and 1.25% otherwise.
“We increased our offer, we provided something that I thought was quite fair and they have proceeded on a path to a strike,” Lecce said in a news conference Monday, adding that it is the responsibility of the government to stand up for students. “Think of what these kids have gone through.”
Hahn responded, “Lecce wants to convince kids and parents and education workers that he has, in his words, no other choice but to introduce this legislation but that’s simply not true. He has a choice to offer an adequate salary increase that compensates for over a decade of wage cuts. He has a choice to invest in education to ensure adequate staffing levels from the classrooms to the libraries. And he has a choice to continue negotiations without having the threat of ramming through a contract full of concessions and wage cuts over the heads of frontline workers.”
CUPE said the “final offer” provided has inadequate protections against job cuts, no paid prep time, a cut to the sick leave/short-term disability plan, and other concessions. The workers in question are generally the lowest paid in schools, and over 96% of those affected voted in favour of a strike.
Hahn added, “An additional 200 bucks in the pockets of workers earning 39K isn’t generous. It wouldn’t even be generous to accept our proposal – it would be necessary, reasonable, and affordable. It’s simply what’s needed in our schools.”
At Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford took at shot at the CUPE leadership team.
“We’re talking over a million parents that would take work off because you want to feather the nest of the heads of the union,” Ford said in the legislature. “I think the labour needs to find new labour leadership.”
Ford added that “there is only one party in this chamber that’s standing up for parents and students” as he saw significant opposition across the floor.
NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles fired back, referring to school shutdowns during the pandemic: “Minister, who shut those classrooms down? Was it the education workers or was it you?”
She also noted the province’s use of the notwithstanding clause as the first time the clause has ever been used in a labour situation, adding, “This government is violating the rights of 55,000 Ontario workers, and those workers are parents too.”
Various school boards had confirmed they would be forced to close if the protest takes place. Families in these regions have been notifying to prepare for alternative arrangements should the strike proceed.
Grand Erie District School Board said Monday that their staff includes 920 CUPE members and acknowledged “the impact this uncertainty has on families” has, promising to provide further information as it becomes available.
The Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir told parents in an email Monday that students and school staff won’t have access to school grounds and services Friday, if the walkout happens as planned.
Local students in the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board will be unaffected by any CUPE strike action, as Board Chair Rick Petrella confirmed that the union “does not represent any workers in the BHNCDSB.”
Negotiations with other education unions are continuing as well, but the Elementary Teachers Federation cancelled a bargaining session on Monday following the tabling of the bill.
They stated, “In creating legislation that imposes a contract on CUPE members, the Ford government has chosen the most draconian manner of legislating away two fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the right to bargain collectively, and the right to strike.”
Results from the legislature debate on the new bill were not available as of press time. An update will be provided in the November 10 Haldimand Press.
