Ontario education workers to vote on new deal Thursday through December 5

Ontario education workers will be voting Thursday through to Dec. 5 to ratify a tentative deal with the province that averted a strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 55,000 education workers, says the results of the vote will be released on Dec. 6.

If CUPE’s members vote to reject the deal, the parties could go back to the table, and CUPE could give another strike notice.

CUPE, whose members include education assistants, librarians and custodians, has said the four-year deal — which comes with a $1-per-hour raise each year, or about 3.59 per cent annually — was no different than what the province offered last week before the union issued a five-day strike notice.

The workers had walked off the job for two days two weeks ago, shutting hundreds of schools, after the government passed legislation that forced a four-year contract on them and took away their right to strike.

RELATED: Schools reopen, strike averted after CUPE and province reach deal

The province used the notwithstanding clause in its legislation to guard against a court challenge, which prompted widespread condemnation from unions across the country — the legislation was eventually repealed.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Monday that talks with the four major teachers’ unions have progressed throughout the summer and fall, but those negotiations are at much earlier stages than with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“CUPE … was more aggressive in negotiating over the past months,” he said after question period.

“So (talks with teachers) are at different stages, but I would submit that they’re in a good place. We continue to work in good faith with the aim of providing a deal that keeps kids in the classroom, that respects our educators.”

Talks throughout the weekend failed to secure anything new, and the tentative deal is the same offer the government presented to the union last week.

However, Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, said it was time to take the deal to the membership for a vote.

News of the tentative deal came a day before CUPE was set to walk off the job for a second time. Schools across Ontario were open Monday, and many parents expressed relief.

With files from Allison Jones of The Canadian Press