Union, province to resume talks to head off strike by school support workers

The province and CUPE went back to the bargaining table on Friday to avert a strike on Monday. Adrian Ghobrial has the details.

By The Canadian Press and News Staff

The Ontario government and a union that represents thousands of education workers say they are to resume talks Friday to head off a looming strike at the province’s schools.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees has said its 55,000 members plan to walk off the job on Monday after holding a work-to-rule campaign this past week.

Several Ontario school boards, including the three largest, have said they will have to close schools if the labour disruption goes ahead.

Provincial Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he isn’t sure why the union is making such a drastic move to a strike so quickly.

He noted that in previous years there had been several weeks and even months between the start of a work-to-rule campaign and the decision to strike — not just the few days they’re facing now.

“This circumstance has been created, this pressurized environment, by design by the union and now while I respect that they can make that decision, I think that for many boards and many parents there’s a frustration that their lives are being upended,” he explained.

“And so my message to the union, my message to the trustees and to all parties, is to return to the table this weekend to land a deal to avert the circumstance they’ve created.”

WATCH: Education Minister Stephen Lecce on the obstacles to reaching a deal


CUPE says the closures are necessary to ensure student safety, which they say would be compromised without CUPE workers on site.

While Lecce is still optimistic a deal can be reached between both sides, he said everyone has to return to the table with the “spirit of cooperation.”

“We are meeting this weekend and it is my hope, in my heart of hearts, that the other parties will come to the table with that spirit of cooperation to land a deal, as the government has signalled,” he said.

“We have been reasonable, we’ve expanded our offer, we have been focused on providing that flexibility to our negotiators to land a deal because at the end of the day the only thing parents care about, and the only thing I care about as minister, is getting a deal that keeps our students in the class this Monday and beyond.”

Contracts for all of the province’s public school employees expired at the end of August, and the Progressive Conservative government has been in tense labour negotiations with several unions.

Both CUPE and the government say they are to be back at the bargaining table this afternoon and expect talks to carry on through the weekend.

WATCH: What parents are doing to secure childcare in the case of a strike


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