Labour disruptions: rocky road ahead in Ontario’s public education system

BY PAUL JUNOR

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 55,000 education support workers which includes: school support staff, lunchroom supervisors, office and clerical staff as well as designated early educators across the province, commenced their work-to-rule on September 30^th. This job action (which involves a partial withdrawal of services extended across the province) was announced on September 19^th as the members voted in favour of taking this job action. This decision was made after the failure of talks between the Council of Trustees (who represent Ontario school boards in provincial negotiations) and CUPE ended without reaching a collective agreement. This withdrawal of services marks the start of a campaign to pressure the PC government.

There were many people within the education sectors that anticipated this work-to–rule in light of the decision that the Ford government made to increase class sizes from 22 to 28 students in high school and from 23.5 to 24.5 students in Grades 4-8 over four years. It has been projected that there will be approximately 10,000 teachers who will no longer be part of the teaching profession.

Vast opposition to this action was evident in the demonstrations on April 6^th, when thousands of teachers, students and unions came out to show solidarity. This has no doubt led to much uneasiness and tensions between the unions and the government who has determined to implement it’s policy.

The partial withdrawal of services, which include but are not limited to include the following:

• Not sweeping hallways, office areas and gymnasiums
• Not doing school compost or recycling programs
• Not cutting grass, shovelling or completing other ground maintenance
• Not collecting or accepting money for school related funding

This work-to-rule has clearly been felt as it impacts aspects of school internal functioning such as: school activities, permits and school operations. There are many community-based programs, religious institutions and after-school programs that had to  be cancelled due to this action.

On October 2^nd, CUPE made the announcement that it had given five days notice ahead of a walkout scheduled to begin on Monday, October 7^th. The Minister of Education, Stephen Leece stated that there is a “credible pathway” to a making a deal, and the sides “aren’t all horribly far apart on a lot of issues.”   He also claimed that the government “has demonstrated reasonability, flexibility,” in talks according to the October 6^th edition of the Toronto Star. He reiterated that “there are a few issues that will be negotiated at the table over the weekend, but I do note that there is a pathway to resolve this, and it really rests with the union being unreasonable.” There has been opposition to this perspective by Laura Walton, president of CUPE who finds the use of the word ‘reasonable” interesting.  According to the Toronto Star, she states “I don’t find it reasonable that we have students without educational assistants, or find it reasonable that we have full-day kindergarten classes with 30 kids in a classroom, or find it reasonable that we have cleanliness standards going down in schools.”

On Sunday, October 6^th, it was announced publicly that CUPE had reached a tentative deal, which averted a possible strike. There is no doubt that many parents were happy as this ensures that they would not have to scramble to find day care spots for their children at the last minute. The gain for the union was that it was able to maintain the sick leave plan in place, which was a sore spot for the government, and to secure job security and consistent hours for workers to serve children with special needs. Many believed the desire to finalize a deal was prompted by the impending federal election on October 21^st, as a strike would possibly become a federal election issue.

There are still ongoing negotiations between the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (EFTO), the Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation (OSSTF) and the government. A province wide day of action was planned for October 10^th in which over 340 schools in over 44 school boards participated in a school walk-in that was organized by the Ontario Families of Public Education. There is also a Facebook group called the Ontario Education Workers United, which is involved in building a province wide cross-union movement to reverse the cuts, and build the schools our kids, and communities need to thrive. These grass root initiatives are building capacity across Ontario.