Local CUPE has no problems with York school board

'We're one of lucky ones', CUPE spokesperson says

YorkRegion.com
January 13, 2014
By Chris Traber

The Canadian Union of Public Employees today gave notice it will not support the Liberal government’s proposed Bill 122, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act.

Canada’s largest union, with 627,000 members, said it will not endorse the proposed legislation because Ontario failed to honour its year-old agreement under Bill 115 with school support workers.

At issue, the union said, is approximately 12 Ontario school boards not complying with the spirit of Bill 115, including pay rates for members on leave.

However, CUPE Local 1196, representing 1,100 York Region District School Board caretaker and maintenance staff, has had no problems with its employer, president Bill Moore said.

“We’re one of the lucky ones,” he said of the harmonious working relationship the union has with the board.

One of the union’s sticking points with approximately 20 per cent of Ontario boards is how Bill 115’s short-term disability payments are interpreted, Mr. Moore said. Bill 115 calls for a person on short-term disability to be paid 90 per cent of her salary. Some boards continue to pay the formerly agreed upon 66 per cent.

“We have a very good working relationship with YRDSB,” he said. “We’re very happy with them. At the end of the day, everyone wants to understand the agreement and work collaboratively.

“I do have to admit, Bill 155 has a lot of mumbo jumbo lawyer speak.”

Newmarket-Aurora  MPP Frank Klees said the Liberal government went out of its way to create havoc through Bill 115.

“It alienated a lot of stakeholders,” the Conservative MPP said. “The province admitted it mishandled that file and now they’re scrambling to piece it together.

“They lost a lot of trust and credibility in the process.”

Mr. Klees agrees with the principles of Bill 122.

“It gives the Crown a place at the negotiation table,” he said. “I support that. It’s strictly labour relations legislation.”

The missing piece, according to Mr. Klees, is a sunset clause.

“We don’t know if it’ll be successful,” he said. “If not, after the next round of bargaining, there should be a review, the ability to revisit the Bill.”

It’s not common for the York Region District School Board to comment on proposed bills, spokesperson Lincinio Miguelo said.

“We will once it’s passed and we’ll ensure we comply with legislation,” he said.

CUPE also called on MPPs from all parties to withdraw their support for the bill.

CUPE national president Paul Moist joined Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario and Terri Preston, CUPE’s school board co-ordinating committee chairperson, at a news conference at Queen’s Park today to make the announcement.

“The Liberal government has said that Bill 122 will prevent the kind of chaos that took place in our schools under Bill 115,” said Mr. Hahn. “We are here today to say it won’t work because, for the past year, the government has refused to honour and enforce the agreement that it signed with CUPE last year under Bill 115. It has broken faith with school board support workers, the backbone of our schools.”

CUPE successfully negotiates thousands of collective agreements every year and national President Moist expressed his disbelief at the situation in Ontario:

“We have never seen circumstances like this. Why is Ontario deficient in this respect? Why won’t the province live up to the deal it has signed? It seems to us to be a lack of government will.”

The government’s refusal to honour its agreement with CUPE has meant a year of disparity among school support workers employed by Ontario’s boards, said Ms Preston.

“The government is producing inequality in schools, the very opposite of what central agreements achieve,” she said. “Support workers doing the same jobs, working just down the road from one another but employed by different boards, are receiving differential treatment. That makes no sense, it’s not fair and that should never happen under the agreement we bargained.”

CUPE also called on MPPs from all parties to withdraw their support for Bill 122 until the government has lived up to the deal it bargained last year. Only once that had happened, said the union, would it support entering into discussions about amendments to the Bill.

“For us, it is a matter of common sense. We say it’s time for the government to put first things first and finish what they started,” Mr. Hahn concluded. “Prove you can live up to the deal you’ve signed before you try to negotiate more. Otherwise, why would anyone support this Bill?”

CUPE represents 55,000 support workers in public, Catholic, French and English school boards across the province. These workers are the educational assistants, school secretaries, instructors, early childhood educators, community advisory staff, food services workers, library technicians, custodians and others who the backbone of our education system.