Ontario Cupe Education Workers Begin Voting On Whether To Strike

Ontario education workers, including librarians, custodians and administrative staff are set to begin voting today on whether to strike – and their union is recommending they vote yes.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees called Ontario’s original offer, which it made public, offensive.
The government has offered increases of two per cent a year for workers on less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all other workers, while CUPE is seeking annual increases of 11.7 per cent.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce criticized CUPE for planning strike votes before the first offer was even tabled.
The province’s five major education unions are all in the midst of negotiating new contracts with the government.
CUPE’s 55,000 teaching staff are due to vote between today and October 2 on whether to strike.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Union Council, says the lack of progress over the past two days of negotiations has “reinforced” why a strike is necessary.
“Starting (today), 55,000 frontline education workers will have the opportunity to give their bargaining committee a strike order to make the Ford government and school board administrators take us seriously,” he said.
The government has said it wants to deal with the bigger issues at a later date, such as pay, job security, sick leave and benefits, Walton said.  But even efforts to discuss simpler issues — such as bereavement leave and creating a replacement pool of workers to fill in when others are absent — have not been fruitful, he said.
Walton previously said a strike vote doesn’t necessarily mean workers will withdraw services, but he said in an interview this week that what people should be concerned about is the state of schools right now.  He said there are not enough teaching assistants to provide adequate support and there are not enough custodians to clean the schools regularly.
“Our goal is to continue to fight for the services our students need, and we will continue to fight to make sure staff can afford to provide those services to students,” she said.
“Right now we’re seeing a government that just continues to disrespect workers.”
Lecce said in a statement that the teaching unions were clearly “moving” towards a strike.
“It has never been clearer that CUPE will strike if its demand for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation is not met,” he wrote, referring to what the minister says will be full pay and various other compensation-related proposals .
“Instead of continuing on their path to strike and unrest, all unions should promise parents that they will stay at the table and keep children in classrooms. Strikes by education unions every three years harm children and their working parents by repeating them back.”
The government noted that CUPE is also asking for five extra paid days before the start of the school year, 30 minutes of paid preparation time each day and an increase in overtime pay from a 1.5 to 2 multiplier.
Walton said the government’s offer amounts to an extra $800 a year for the average worker making $39,000.
CUPE and other unions said they were pushing for raises both to offset their latest contracts subject to a legislative cap of one percent a year – known as Bill 124 – and to deal with inflation, which is running just under 7 %.
CUPE has several more negotiating dates with the government scheduled in October, but no more before the strike vote is completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 23, 2022.

title: “Ontario Cupe Education Workers Begin Voting On Whether To Strike " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-10” author: “Thomas Mcmahan”

Ontario education workers, including librarians, custodians and administrative staff are set to begin voting today on whether to strike – and their union is recommending they vote yes.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees called Ontario’s original offer, which it made public, offensive.
The government has offered increases of two per cent a year for workers on less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all other workers, while CUPE is seeking annual increases of 11.7 per cent.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce criticized CUPE for planning strike votes before the first offer was even tabled.
The province’s five major education unions are all in the midst of negotiating new contracts with the government.
CUPE’s 55,000 teaching staff are due to vote between today and October 2 on whether to strike.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Union Council, says the lack of progress over the past two days of negotiations has “reinforced” why a strike is necessary.
“Starting (today), 55,000 frontline education workers will have the opportunity to give their bargaining committee a strike order to make the Ford government and school board administrators take us seriously,” he said.
The government has said it wants to deal with the bigger issues at a later date, such as pay, job security, sick leave and benefits, Walton said.  But even efforts to discuss simpler issues — such as bereavement leave and creating a replacement pool of workers to fill in when others are absent — have not been fruitful, he said.
Walton has said in the past that going on strike doesn’t necessarily mean workers will withdraw services, but he said in an interview this week that what people should be concerned about is the state of schools right now.  He said there are not enough teaching assistants to provide adequate support and there are not enough custodians to clean the schools regularly.
“Our goal is to continue to fight for the services our students need, and we will continue to fight to make sure staff can afford to provide those services to students,” she said.
“Right now we’re seeing a government that just continues to disrespect workers.”
Lecce said in a statement that the teaching unions were clearly “moving” towards a strike.
“It has never been clearer that CUPE will strike if its demand for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation is not met,” he wrote, referring to what the minister says will be full pay and various other compensation-related proposals .
“Instead of continuing on their path to strike and unrest, all unions should promise parents that they will stay at the table and keep children in classrooms. Strikes by education unions every three years harm children and their working parents by repeating them back.”
The government noted that CUPE is also asking for five extra paid days before the start of the school year, 30 minutes of paid preparation time each day and an increase in overtime pay from a 1.5 to 2 multiplier.
Walton said the government’s offer amounts to an extra $800 a year for the average worker making $39,000.
CUPE and other unions said they were pushing for raises both to offset their latest contracts subject to a legislative cap of one percent a year – known as Bill 124 – and to deal with inflation, which is running just under 7 %.
CUPE has several more negotiating dates with the government scheduled in October, but no more before the strike vote is completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 23, 2022.