School Support Workers To Strike Monday

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Last updated: Wednesday October 2nd, 8:38pm

If no deal is reached by Monday, 55,000 support staff workers in local schools in Ontario will be on strike.

Those include clerical staff, custodians, educational assistants and early childhood educators.

Those employees had begun work to rule action this past Monday.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees union claims that school boards are using education workers’ work-to-rule job action as an excuse to cut programs, services and staffing in Ontario schools.

“I’ll be frank: we had hoped work-to-rule would force the parties to get together and agree to a deal. But that hasn’t happened, and now we’re hearing stories that cause us great concern,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, which negotiates centrally on behalf of the union’s school board employees.

“Without any justification whatsoever, some school boards are closing programs and sending workers home. Some boards are paying parents to do the work of CUPE members. Some are asking older students to collect younger students from the school bus. Across the province, boards are cutting services and putting students at risk,” said Walton.

In a statement, the public school board said “The GECDSB remains hopeful that bargaining will continue and a settlement can be secured before the deadline. However we are developing contingency plans in the event of a work stoppage by CUPE employees.”