Negotiations ongoing between CUPE and Ford government, talks going nowhere
Posted October 18, 2022 4:23 pm.
Last Updated October 18, 2022 5:28 pm.
Government negotiations with the union representing educational support staff in Ontario are ongoing as the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) agrees to more mediation talks this week.
Roughly 55,000 education workers in Ontario, such as custodians, early childhood educators and administration staff, will be in a legal strike position as of Nov. 3 if a deal is not reached.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, tells CityNews talks will resume on Wednesday with additional dates at the end of the month.
However, Walton admitted that talks had gone nowhere.
“Not so far. But we’re still early days where we were with the last round of bargaining,” Walton said on Tuesday. “We will move forward from there.”
CUPE is seeking annual wage increases of 11.7 per cent, while the Ford government is offering between 1.2 and 2 per cent for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all other workers.
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“We’re going to be at the table. We have always said a deal will get done at the table,” Walton said.
“I think we also know that it’s becoming clear, it’s time; we do not want a disruption. We don’t want to leave the classroom, but this government needs to recognize, value and respect the work that education workers do.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, centre, and Education Minister Stephen Lecce take a tour of Kensington Community School on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. Photo courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio
CUPE says the union has not heard anything from the mediator regarding the government’s willingness to budge on its salary offer.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce tells CityNews the government hopes that CUPE will “bring forward reasonable requests that focus on students staying in class, not requests for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation.”
“Like parents, we believe strongly that students deserve to be in class catching up on their learning and are disappointed to hear the education union reconfirm to parents their intention to impose a strike on kids and their families,” Lecce said.
CUPE has not indicated if education workers would engage in a full strike, which could close schools, start with a work-to-rule campaign, or take some other course of action at that point.
During the last round of contract negotiations in 2019, CUPE and the government reached a last-minute deal the day before workers were set to strike.
With files from Allison Jones of The Canadian Press
