CUPE shares 5-day notice of potential provincewide strike

The Canadian Union of Public Employees has filed a five-day strike notice, saying bargaining talks with the province have broken down once more.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce expresses disappointment and says that the province has put forward multiple improved offers for CUPE’s 55,000 education workers.

The notice of a potential provincewide strike comes after what CUPE considers a refusal from the province to place importance on student services.

“This response is because of the government’s unwillingness to invest in the services that children, students, families, and our workers need,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE-OSBCU.

READ MORE: Ontario government tables bill to repeal education-worker law

CUPE says it reached middle ground with the government on wages after Ontario repealed controversial legislation on Monday that had imposed a contract on the workers and banned them from striking.

That legislation was passed on Nov. 3 in an effort to keep CUPE members at work after an earlier strike notice.

Thousands of workers, including education assistants, librarians and custodians, walked off the job anyway despite the new legislation, shutting hundreds of schools to in-person learning for two days.