OPSEU education workers to walk out in solidarity with CUPE

Thousands of education workers from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) will walk off the job Friday in solidarity with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) who has 55,000 workers set to strike.

The OPSEU represents education workers such as educational assistants and early childhood educators at several boards in the province with approximately 8,000 members.

Ontario’s Conservative government is expected to pass a bill today to impose a contract on CUPE workers and make any strike illegal.

The union says they plan to pay the fees and picket anyways. Those pickets will start tomorrow outside of local MPP offices.

CUPE had sent the government a new counter offer on Tuesday, although it is unclear what the offer contained.

The union was previously asking for an 11.7 per cent annual increase for its lowest paid workers who make less than 40 thousand dollars a year.

The government rejected the counter offer, saying they wouldn’t negotiate until CUPE takes the strike off the table.

READ MORE:  Education workers in Ontario set to strike starting Friday

OPSEU president JP Hornick says legislation the Ontario government is expected to pass today is an attack on all workers’ bargaining rights.

“You didn’t ask to be on the front lines of this fight, but you are strong,” Hornick said. “And we will have your back when you go out on Friday.”

The Toronto District School Board has said in-person learning will be cancelled as long as CUPE workers are off the job because it can’t ensure schools will remain safe and clean for students.

Several other boards across the province have also said they will have to close schools on Friday because they can’t operate safely without the 55,000 workers.

The province has been criticized for their promise to use the not-withstanding clause to temporarily suspend the charter of rights and freedoms and enforce this bill.

Some 18 members of the provincial NDP were booted from the legislative chamber in a heated session yesterday, after the interim leader accused premier Doug Ford of lying about why he’s using the notwithstanding clause.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau has told Ontario Premier, Doug Ford that his pre-emptive use of the not-withstanding clause is “wrong and inappropriate”.

Trudeau told Ford in a phone call that the clause should only be used in “the most exceptional of circumstances.”

Ford’s office says the premier told the prime minister that allowing education workers to strike would have an “unacceptable” effect on students after two years of disruptions due to the pandemic.