Ontario school boards ratify deal with CUPE support staff

While the province’s educators have approved the provincial deal, many boards are now bargaining local contracts with union locals over more administrative matters.

Thestar.com
Jan. 6, 2023
Kristin Rushowy

Ontario school boards have ratified the four-year provincial deal that was reached with support staff late last year, and are now turning their attention to bargaining contracts with their union locals.

“The agreement reached reflects the committed efforts of all involved to ensure the well-being of students and the dedicated members of CUPE who serve in Catholic schools throughout Ontario,” said Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association President Patrick Daly in a statement.

Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said it has also approved the deal with the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ school boards bargaining unit, which represents 55,000 custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants and library technicians, among others, in a number of boards across the province.

“Throughout this process our goal has been to negotiate a fair agreement that is fully funded and in the best interest of students,” Abraham said in a written release. “We value the contribution that education workers make to the educational experience of our students every day, and so we are extremely pleased to have ratified this agreement.”

The government has previously approved the deal, and support staff ratified it last month, with 73 per cent voting in favour.

“We are proud to have delivered a deal that keeps students in class and provides families the stability they deserve,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a statement to the Star.

A provincial deal was also reached with the smaller Ontario Council of Educational Workers last month.

Under two-tier education bargaining, provincial contracts cover costly items such as salaries, and local talks handle more administrative matters.

The Halton public board has reached a tentative deal with its CUPE support staff local as has the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board.

The Toronto Catholic board has hammered out agreements with two of its seven CUPE locals.

In Hastings, CUPE Local 1022 represents 750 custodians, educational and communicative disorder assistants, early childhood educators, clerical and IT staff and student supervision monitors, among others.

Provincial-level talks continue with all teacher unions. The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association told members in a memo, obtained by the Star, that it had three meetings with the province and Catholic trustees’ association in December, but warned “there has been very little in the way of progress in the last few bargaining sessions.”

The union has four tentative dates for talks this month -- Jan. 9, 10, 25 and 26.

The provincial deal with CUPE was reached after a contentious round of bargaining, with the union walking off the job for two days and the Ford government passing legislation to prevent a strike while also imposing a contract on them using the Constitution’s “notwithstanding clause.”

It later rescinded the controversial bill, and negotiated the deal with the school support staff that provides a $1 an hour raise each year over four years, or a roughly 15.2 per cent raise in total.