Best services for students needed: union
Representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) issued the required five days’ notice on Sept. 25 that puts them in a legal strike position on Sept. 30.
CUPE education workers will begin their work-to-rule campaign at 63 school boards across Ontario, says the union.
Hours of services and supports lost to Ontario students because of the Doug Ford government cuts are the focus of job action announced today by education workers represented by, says CUPE.
“We’ve always said that any job action we take will have at its heart the protection of education services for students,” says Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), which bargains centrally on behalf of the union’s 55,000 education workers. “And this year we’ve seen those services decimated: school libraries closed over students’ lunch breaks because there aren’t enough library workers; school cleaning cut to the point that custodians are told they can only vacuum kindergarten classrooms once a week; eight or nine students with special needs now supported by a single education assistant; communications with parents affected because some schools have lost their school secretaries.”
CUPE and OSBCU welcomed the province’s and the Council of Trustees’ Associations’ proposal for new bargaining dates. The parties are now scheduled to meet on Sept. 28 and 29 in an attempt to reach a deal that will ward off job action, says the union.
