Durham District School Board and CUPE Local 218 Reach Collective Agreements
Posted April 2, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Durham school support workers will be back on the job Tuesday after a tentative contract agreement reached over the weekend was ratified on Monday.
Both parties agreed to the terms, which will see s alary increases are 2.7% in the first year, and staged increases of 1.5% at the start, and middle of the following two years. Benefit improvements will match the Board’s agreements with other employee groups. Workload issues were also addressed.
“We are extremely pleased to have reached agreements with CUPE,” says Board Chair Marilyn Crawford. “Both negotiating teams are to be commended for their hard work in reaching fair and equitable settlements.”
“The Board looks forward to welcoming back our school secretaries, custodians and educational assistants.”.
More than 2,000 staff members, including custodians, maintenance workers, administrative and education assistants walked off the job nearly two weeks ago over wage and workload issues.
The members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 218 had been arguing for a three-year deal, after their previous deal expired a year ago.
There were fears that schools were going to have to close if the labour action went on much longer, for sanitary reasons. And though there weren’t closures some programs, like night courses, had to be cancelled.
It’s estimated 70,000 students at 132 schools were affected by the strike.
