Agreement provides wage increase of one per cent
TORONTO (CP) — The union representing Ontario’s education workers says its members have voted to adopt a new contract that was drawn up last month.
The 55,000 workers narrowly avoided a strike in early October when the CUPE bargaining team reached an eleventh-hour tentative deal with the province.
The union says 79 per cent of the members voted in favour of the new deal, but adds it was not passed unanimously.
Had the workers — including custodians, early childhood educators and clerical staff — gone on strike, two dozen school boards said they would have had to close their doors.
Under the deal, the workers would get a one per cent wage increase.
Meantime, all three unions representing teachers are negotiating new deals with the provincial government.
Elementary teachers and education workers have voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike, though the union wouldn’t lay out a timeline for when it could happen.
Unions representing secondary and Catholic teachers are also holding strike votes.
