CUPE members to return to school after Ford pledges to repeal strike legislation

Education workers are expected to go back to work after Premier Doug Ford said he will repeal legislation that imposed a contract on them.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, says protest sites “will be collapsed” and the union’s 55,000 education workers will be back on the job Tuesday.

Ford announced earlier that he was willing to repeal Bill 28, the law that banned the workers from striking and pre-emptively used the notwithstanding clause to guard against constitutional challenges.

The premier said he would only repeal the law if the Canadian Union of Public Employees stopped its walkout.

I’m glad CUPE has agreed to withdraw its strike action so kids can return to class. We’ll be back at the table to negotiate a fair deal — for students, parents, workers and taxpayers.

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) November 7, 2022

CUPE members walked off the job Friday despite the law banning them from doing so, and shut hundreds of schools across the province.

The government had taken CUPE members to the Ontario Labour Relations Board on the legality of the job action.

Hundreds of thousands of students were out of the classroom for a second day Monday, as many schools were closed to in-person learning as a result of the walkout.

READ MORE: Ontario passes bill to force CUPE deal, prohibit strikes

Education Minister, Stephen Lecce says the government is willing to return to the bargaining table.

“At the earliest opportunity, we will revoke Bill 28 in its entirety and be at the table so that kids can return to the classroom after two difficult years,” Lecce said. “As we have always said and called for, kids need to be back in the classroom, where they belong.”

Walton says she hopes the union’s gesture of “good faith” in ending its walkout is met with similar good faith by the government at the bargaining table.

WATCH: Al Sweeney spoke with CUPE members on the picket lines today and has their reaction to the legislative repeal.