Ontario education workers vote in favour of new deal with province

The union representing thousands of Ontario educations workers has voted in favour of ratifying a tentative deal it recently struck with the province.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) announced Monday morning that 73 per cent of its members who voted were in favour of ratification. The union says just over three-quarters of its members participated in the vote.

“It has been a long road to get here,” says Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU). “It is my greatest hope that this deal shows workers, that after years of being overlooked and underappreciated, that our work is valuable.”

OSBCU 2022 Bargaining Update # 48| Négociation du CSCSO 2022 – Mise à jour no 48 -Ratfication Vote Results #WorkerVoice #WorkerPowerDoesntEnd #OnPoli #OntEd https://t.co/ipKIoxnW5L pic.twitter.com/TXRjB6VQ6b

— OSBCU-CSCSO (@osbcucscso) December 5, 2022

CUPE represents around 55,000 educational support staff throughout the province, including custodians, education assistants, early childhood educators, and administrative staff.

The union previously recommended that their members accept the four-year contract which will see them receive annual wage increases of 3.59 per cent. The raise equivalent to approximately $1 per hour annually.

Walton has previously expressed some reservations about the new deal due to it not including any new provisions on staffing. The union was looking for $100 million in guarantees of higher staffing levels and wanted an early childhood educator to be placed in every kindergarten classroom, instead of just classes that have more than 16 students.

Despite this, Walton said she was one of the members who voted yes, Adding she believes good bargaining is when both sides walk away unhappy.

“I thought it might be bit tighter,” she said in reference to the 73 per cent vote. “This is like winning the Superbowl and now we’re going to go back in and rebuild again.”

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CUPE staged a two-day walkout last month against the backdrop of significant fines after the Ford government passed legislation that imposed a new contract on education workers while banning their right to strike. The back-to-work legislation also included the notwithstanding clause in a bid to prevent any legal challenges.

“The provincial government thought they could play the same type of games with us that governments have used for years,” said Walton. “Instead we stood our ground, we stared down this government.”

‘We shook this province with our protest.”

The legislation was repealed as a result of the job action and both sides returned to mediated bargaining. News of the tentative deal came a day before CUPE was set to walk off the job for a second time.

Teacher’s unions in the province remain without a contract and are actively negotiating with the province.

With files from John Marchesan and Richard Southern