Unions join forces with education workers

Union members across Ontario are expected to join picket lines in solidarity with education workers planning a strike Friday, with one union saying its workers will also be walking off the job for the day in an expression of support.

The government’s legislation, which passed Thursday, has drawn the ire of several unions, including the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which said its 8,000 education workers, will stage a walkout Friday in solidarity with CUPE.

OPSEU president JP Hornick said the legislation was undemocratic. “I think that the Ford government picked a fight with a group of workers, primarily women, primarily the lowest paid people in the education sector and thought that he and Lecce would be able to just force them down,” she said. “And what he did was light a spark. And he can’t control where that goes.”

Most of the boards where OPSEU’s members work already planned to close schools on Friday, saying they couldn’t operate safely without CUPE members that include custodians, librarians and educational assistants. But at least two boards, in Sudbury and Simcoe County, announced Thursday they would also close schools as a result of OPSEU’s planned walkout.

OPSEU’s solidarity walkout could escalate tensions in its own negotiations with the government, scheduled to begin later this month. “(Members) know that the way this legislation is written that it sets a new norm, and it sets the tone for what they can expect in their bargaining,” Hornick said.

Meanwhile, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, who are both in negotiations with the government, said they had no similar solidarity walkout plans, but were encouraging members to join CUPE picket lines before and after work.