Ford extends olive branch to education workers
Thousands of school children in Brantford and Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties will return to in-person learning Tuesday.
“Grand Erie’s 920 CUPE staff will be returning tomorrow to the daily, vital work they do supporting students and learning across the district,” said Dave Smouter, manager of communications and community relations for the Grand Erie District School Board. “All regular school activities will resume, including extracurricular activities, sports and athletics and student transportation.”
The re-opening of schools comes after Ontario Premier Doug Ford extended an olive branch Monday morning to striking education workers, promising to repeal the government’s controversial legislation if they ended their walkout.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees – representing 55,000 educational assistants, clerical, IT, and custodial workers – began a strike Friday that shut down the majority of schools in Ontario.
CUPE members picked outside MPP offices across the province, including Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma’s office at Nelson and Charlotte Streets in Brantford for a second day on Monday.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, said she hopes the union’s gesture of “good faith” in ending its walkout is met with similar good faith by the government at the bargaining table.
Many striking members listened to a CUPE press conference on their cell phones late Monday morning announcing that the protest sites would be “collapsed” starting Tuesday.
“The Premier and the Minister of Education are a day late and a dollar short,” said Robin Sweers, communications chair for the Ontario School Board Council of Unions and an educational assistant at Pauline Johnson Collegiate in Brantford. “You had plenty of time not to enact that legislation and send your minister to the bargaining table. We asked to bargain early and have tried to bargain with them since the third of June.”
Sarah Kuva, president of CUPE Local 5100 representing more than 900 education support workers in the area, said both sides need to get back to negotiating.
“We need to move forward and just have some really productive bargaining at the table,” said the local president. “The time is now. We’re ready, and our people are ready to be at the table any time.”
Meantime, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady said she is glad students will be back in class as both CUPE and the provincial government will return to negotiations.
“I told the government in the House and by letter, that I was very concerned about students being back at home after so much time already spent missing out on healthy and effective in-class learning,” said the independent MPP. “I was also concerned about the government and CUPE feeling the wrath of parents if a strike persisted; both of them looked back on this one.”
Ontario’s Minister of Education Stephen Lecce confirmed Tuesday that the government will completely repeal Bill 28 when the House reconvenes next week.
“I would like to praise the government for doing the right thing and for CUPE leaders withdrawing pickets as their end of the bargain,” said MPP Brady.