TORONTO, ON – CUPE Ontario, the province’s largest union, supports education workers in the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) in their fight to secure a fair collective agreement with the province.
“We stand in solidarity with OSSTF’s education workers and against any attempts to change their working conditions,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “Education workers such as custodians, secretaries and educational assistants keep our schools safe and clean and provide vital one-on-one support to students. It’s time they got the respect they deserve.”
New provincial legislation led to a more challenging bargaining process. Despite the delays resulting from that legislation, it would have been possible to secure fair agreement without any disruption to the school year, had education workers been given dates to bargain earlier in the summer.
“CUPE Ontario members will be there for our sisters and brothers in OSSTF. Instead of changing working conditions, the Wynne government should focus on negotiating a fair agreement,” said Hahn.
CUPE’s 55,000 school board members work in schools and board offices across Ontario, in all four school systems. Some of the lowest-paid workers in the education system, CUPE members work as educational assistants, custodians, office administrators, early childhood educators, trades people, instructors, library technicians, speech pathologists, IT specialists and in many other classifications.
For more information, please contact:
Craig Saunders
CUPE Communications
416-576-7316
