It’s not yet clear what impact a potential strike by custodians and other education workers could have on local schools, but officials are monitoring the situation.
“We will do whatever we can to keep students learning in-person, however this will be very challenging without the services of our valued CUPE employees,” reads a statement posted on the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) website. “We will be providing additional information about UGDSB’s plans for next week as soon as possible.”
While Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) locations will be open on Monday, that may not be the case on Tuesday or beyond.
“If the strike were to continue … it is anticipated that we will not be able to maintain our CUPE-Staffed schools to the level required and we will need to move these schools (i.e., all Wellington Catholic DSB schools in Guelph, Erin, and Rockwood) to remote, online learning,” reads a statement sent to GuelphToday.
Guelph's St. John Bosco and WCDSB schools in Fergus, Arthur, Elora and Mount Forest will not be impacted, the statement notes.
CUPE officials announced Wednesday morning the union intends to begin striking on Monday.
"After getting an imposed contract that would have further harmed Ontario schools off their backs with the repeal of Bill 28, Ontario’s lowest-paid education workers have given five days’ notice of a potential province-wide strike," said a CUPE news release.
It said CUPE's Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) central bargaining committee, negotiating for 55,000 frontline education workers, was able to reach a "middle ground" with the province and the Council of Trustees’ Associations (CTA) on wages.
"Despite that progress, the government refused to invest in the services that students need and parents expect, precipitating this escalation," the news release said.
The strike would involve custodians, ESL teachers and teacher assistants.
“Since resuming talks, we’ve put forward multiple improvements that would have added hundreds of millions of dollars across the sector, especially for lower income workers,” Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, said in a tweeted statement shortly after CUPE announced its strike plan. “We offered $335 million more over four years for CUPE workers alone.”
The potential strike follows work withdrawal and protests outside MPP offices earlier this month, after the provincial government passed legislation that imposed a contract on CUPE workers and declared strike action illegal.
Before government officials agreed to repeal the legislation, protests led to a day of school closures and online learning for WCDSB students. The UGDSB was set to follow suit in most of its schools but that was preempted by the promise to repeal.
At that time, 18 unions stood with CUPE, representing millions of private and public sector workers across Canada – including the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, the Ontario Secondary Schools teacher federation.
It’s not known if those unions will support the latest planned strike action.
