CUPE Ontario education workers ratify deal with province

By Soha Asfahani

After five months of negotiations, CUPE Ontario education workers have voted 73 per cent in favour of a tentative agreement with the provincial government and school boards.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU), said a record number of members voted — 41,559, or 76 per cent of the 55,000 memberships — backing a deal that will see workers receive a $1-an-hour wage increase for each of four years or just under 3.6 per cent annually.

The government has said this would result in a “significant pay increase” for the union’s lowest paid members.

The Doug Ford government passed legislation to preemptively prevent a planned strike with use of the notwithstanding clause to override Charter-protected collective bargaining, and then repealed the bill under intense pressure from a united labour movement and a two-day protest by CUPE members.

The agreement brings months of labour strife at local schools across the province to an end.