THUNDER BAY — If school support workers stage a walkout later this week, they will not picket outside Thunder Bay public schools.
Leaders of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the union representing about 55,000 education workers across Ontario, have said they intend to hold a province-wide protest on Friday. Negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement have reached a standstill and the government announced on Monday that it intends to impose a new contract through legislation, which would also ban a strike.
Rodney McGee, president of CUPE Local 2486, said Tuesday that the union's dispute is with the provincial government, not with individual school boards.
His local represents about 500 school support staff working for various boards in Northwestern Ontario, including 150 custodians, tradespeople and cafeteria staff at the Lakehead District School Board.
McGee said any picketing by CUPE members would be directed against the province, rather than at school sites.
The Toronto District School Board has already announced that it would close its schools for in-person learning in the event of a walkout, and some other boards have advised parents to prepare to make arrangements for child care.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Lakehead District School Board director of education Sherri-Lynne Pharand said schools will remain open on Friday.
In a brief statement earlier in the day, the board said it remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached between the union and the government. At the same time, it is continuing to assess the impact that a full withdrawal of services would have on its schools "in order to be prepared for all potential outcomes."
CUPE's threat to walk off the job is in defiance of the government's plan to impose a new collective agreement and ban a province-wide strike.
The provincial legislature was called into session early Tuesday morning to consider the bill, which includes use of the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
McGee called the government's revised final offer to CUPE "insulting."
It increased wages by 2.5 per cent each year for workers earning less than $43,000, and by 1.5-per-cent for higher earners.
The previous offer provided for a two per cent increase each year over a four-year contract for those earning less than $40,000, and 1.25-per-cent annually for workers earning more.
The union has been seeking annual raises of about 11.7 per cent a year.
McGee accused the government of refusing to bargain fairly, and choosing instead to attack workers' rights to free and fair collective bargaining.
He said CUPE negotiators will remain in a Toronto hotel the rest of the week prepared to negotiate.
"What they have offered is totally unacceptable," he said. "They need to come back with a better offer."
McGee declined to speculate whether a walkout on Friday would continue beyond that, noting that the legislation hasn't passed yet.
Union members could be subject to fines of $4,000 for each day off work.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said the government was left with no choice but to impose a contract out of the need to ensure stability for children.
He said the action was taken because the union refused to retract its strike threat.
"Nearly two million students have been through too much over the past two years, and we owe it to them to stand up for their education," the minister said Monday.
