Windsor-Essex education workers take part in 'Solidarity Saturday' as union negotiates with province
The clock is ticking down on a deadline to get a deal between education workers and the province as the two sides try to iron out a collective agreement before 5:00 p.m. Sunday evening.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents about 55,000 education workers says they will be on strike once again if a deal isn’t reached by that time.
While bargaining remains ongoing, CUPE is hosting solidarity pickets across the province, including one out front of the constituency office of Windsor-Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie.
"Nobody wants to strike but we're just here to continue to show our support for not just us, but our students and other education workers," said Jacqueline Ouellette of CUPE local 1348.
If a deal isn’t reached, they will go on strike Monday, which includes roughly 2,000 local educational assistants, early childhood educators, custodians and secretaries.
The government’s most recent offer includes a proposed wage increase of about 15 per cent over four years.
"We are doubling down on all efforts to get a deal. It just requires the union to accept the good proposal before them," said Ontario’s education minister, Stephen Lecce.
The union also demanding improved services by way of higher staffing levels.
"There's just not enough resources in the buildings and buy resources, I mean, people," said Darlene Sawchuk, the president of CUPE local 1358 and long-time educational assistant.
She said current staffing levels are too thin to help students excel, with EA’s spreading their workload across five to seven students apiece.
"And when you feel like all you get to do is put out the fires or manage the basic needs," Sawchuk said. "You don't feel like you're giving your best to students, any students."
In the event no deal is struck by the deadline, school boards in Windsor-Essex have developed contingency plans.
The Public school board plans to keep schools open but will possibly move online if a deal isn’t reached by Wednesday.
The Catholic board plans to keep schools open, but students in kindergarten or those with complex needs will be given at home work in the interest of health and safety, according to the Windsor-Essex County Catholic School Board.
"It's a faith based school. It's all about inclusion, it’s supposed to be an all-inclusive based school," said Joe Thrasher, whose son Jack is a student with complex needs at Villanova. "You're getting all this all this funding. And he's not allowed to go. I think it's a total scam."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.