Second education union starts bargaining
CUPE official says negotiations will be used to defend against attacks
The union representing 55,000 school board support staff across Ontario has filed notice to start contract bargaining early, becoming the province’s second education union to do so.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees sent a formal request on Friday, after the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation did so on Monday.
CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions bargains for workers in all four systems — English and French, public and Catholic — and is warning of difficult talks ahead.
“With services under threat from this government’s cuts to education, our negotiations take on special significance as a means of defending what’s under attack,” said Laura Walton, president of the board council, adding she “expects it to be a tough round.”
She said the union wants to “address the effect of cuts on children with special needs, when there is already a shortage of education assistants, or the ways that everyone’s health will be affected if there aren’t enough custodians to keep Ontario schools clean and safe.”
Walton said potential layoff notices are starting to go out to her members as boards work out their finances for the fall — education grants were announced a week ago — and, unlike teachers, there is no “attrition protection” fund for them to avoid actual job losses.
All education contracts expire at the end of August and talks typically begin in June, but the government introduced changes so talks could start earlier if the unions agree.
“We need to make sure student success is the primary focus of our education system once again. In order to do that, we need the teacher federations and education worker unions to come to the table,” Thompson said in a written statement after the first union signalled kick-started talks.