Ford government to table legislation that would impose contract on education workers, prevent planned strike

CTV National News: CUPE strike ends Around 55,000 education workers will return to work after the Ontario government backtracks on Bill 28. Heather Butts reports.

Ontario’s education minister, Stephen Lecce, says the provincial government has “no other choice but to introduce legislation tomorrow, which will ensure that students remain in-class to catch up on their learning.”

This comes after an emergency mediated session was called Sunday afternoon between the provincial government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the union that represents the province’s education workers.

The session included all affected parties including CUPE, government negotiators, the mediator, and school board representatives, all of whom gather at downtown Toronto's Sheraton Hotel to discuss the imminent job action and how it can be averted.

CUPE announced Sunday morning that education workers across the province would go on strike starting Friday, Nov. 4 if a deal with the provincial government is not reached.

Following the meeting, Lecce said the provincial government presented CUPE with a new offer, but CUPE did not accept it and still intends to strike starting Friday.

“We are doing everything we can to keep students in class, and that’s why today we asked CUPE to meet us back at the table and presented a more generous offer,” Lecce said.

“Because CUPE refuses to withdraw their intent to strike, in order to avoid shutting down classes we will have no other choice but to introduce legislation tomorrow, which will ensure that students remain in-class to catch up on their learning.”

Laura Walton, a Belleville-based educational assistant who serves as the president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions says the Ford government’s threat of legislation is a “slap in the face to all workers.”

“Today, the Ford government's lead negotiators summoned me to a meeting. We went to the meeting optimistic that this government would recognize and respect our right to negotiate. Instead they gave us an ultimatum. They threatened to introduce legislation to dictate the terms of our next contract as early as tomorrow,” Walton said in a news conference call Sunday night.

Walton says that CUPE is prepared to return to the bargaining table tomorrow to continue talks with the province.

“We are here, just as we've been for five months, and we're ready to get a negotiated agreement that responds to the needs of students and frontline workers,” Walton said.

Walton says that no one, least of all education workers themselves, wants a strike, but adds that education workers need and deserve a significant wage increase.

NUMEROUS BOARDS WOULD CLOSE SCHOOLS IF STRIKE GOES AHEAD

If the province’s planned legislation isn’t passed and a CUPE strike begins Friday, numerous school boards across Ontario confirmed Sunday that they’d be forced to shut their schools’ doors.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is telling parents, guardians and caregivers to be prepared for all possibilities in the event of a strike.