Region’s Catholic board closing all schools on Friday
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board will close all of its schools on Friday.
The decision comes after Education Minister Stephen Lecce reported that last-minute contract talks between the government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, had broken down.
“Barring any major unforeseen developments, that means CUPE will be taking strike action beginning tomorrow,” the Catholic board said in a statement on Thursday.
“As a result, all WCDSB elementary and secondary schools will be closed, including our before and after school programs.”
All elementary and secondary schools will migrate to remote learning on Friday, the statement said.
Devices are being deployed to students who require them, and classes will begin at 9:30 a.m.
Any parents with questions or concerns are asked to contact their children’s school directly.
Updates on the situation will be posted to the board’s WCDSB Labour Updates page.
CUPE represents 55,000 custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants and clerical staff in many of the province’s school boards.
About 1,200 education workers at the Catholic board are part of the union. With negotiations coming to a standstill, they are expected to join members across the province in an illegal strike.
“It’s disappointing that we got here,” Lecce said in a statement on Thursday.
“All along we had hoped to reach an agreement that’s right for students, right for parents, right for workers and right for taxpayers.”
Lecce said he wanted to make something very clear: “If CUPE continues with their strike, they will be breaking the law.”
On Sunday, the union gave five days’ notice of a potential provincewide strike if a deal could not be reached.
On Monday, Lecce introduced legislation to prevent Ontario education workers from going on strike and imposed a four-year contract on them, using the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights.
On Wednesday, Lecce said the government would be interested in returning to the table to bargain with the union, but only if it cancelled its plans to strike on Friday.
After negotiations broke down on Thursday, the union has indicated it intends to illegally strike on Friday.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s school board bargaining unit, warned parents the strike could last into early next week.
The union risks fines of $4,000 per worker each day they strike, plus a $500,000 daily fine for the union. The union said it will cover workers’ fines, which could amount to $220 million a day.