Breaking: Ontario government plans legislation to pre-empt strike by CUPE school support staff
The Ontario government plans to introduce pre-emptive back-to-work legislation on Monday and impose a contract on 55,000 school support staff after CUPE said its workers would strike starting Friday.
The legislation was already drawn up and the government “had no intention of negotiating fairly with education workers,” she said. In a statement, Lecce said “we are doing everything we can to keep students in class, and that’s why we asked CUPE to meet us back at the table and presented a more generous offer.”The government’s final offer boosts wage increases slightly, to 2.5 per cent each year for those earning less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent for everyone else. That’s a change from the original offer of two per cent for those earning less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for those earning more.
Boards across the province had also begun issuing plans in case of strikes, with some saying schools would have to close, and others saying they would stay open. The Halton District School Board planned to run on an alternate-day schedule for elementary students, meaning kids would be in school one day and learning online from home the next, to keep schools clean as long as possible.