LONDON, ON – At a press conference this morning CUPE locals representing more than 5000 education workers in the London area called on the Ford government to immediately increase funding for school boards and remedy the crisis in understaffing, sky rocketing violence, and lack of student supports.
A recent survey of Ontario education workers, including Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, Child and Youth workers, custodians, maintenance and trades workers, and school secretaries represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) shows that a severe crisis in underfunding has led to extreme understaffing, students’ needs going unmet, and increased violence in the Thames Valley District and London District Catholic school boards.
Read the full CUPE-OSBCU Services Survey report for the London-area.
The CUPE-OSBCU survey included over 12,000 respondents from across Ontario, with close to 1400 from the Thames Valley District and London District Catholic school boards.
This school year alone, the Thames Valley DSB has faced a minimum of a $93 million cut by the Conservative government to real per-pupil funding and London District Catholic School Board has faced a real per-pupil cut of $31 million.
This severe underfunding leaves students and workers at risk because there are too few staff in schools. It also means students have their learning environments disrupted on a regular basis, creating an environment that is far from conducive to having the highest quality of education.
CUPE education workers across the province are calling on the Ford government adequately staff school boards so that education workers can do their jobs with dignity and respect, and address the crisis of violence across Ontario school boards.
The OSBCU represents more than 57,000 education workers across the province.
Quotes:
Joe Tigani, President of OSBCU: It is abundantly clear that the education system in Ontario at a breaking point. For years, the Conservative government has continued to cut billions of dollars in funding to the education sector, causing extreme understaffing, increased violence against staff and students, and our students’ needs being neglected. There is no question that the Ford government has abandoned the education sector. The Ontario government must increase its investment in students and education workers and address this situation immediately. Students deserve better, parents deserve better, and our education workers deserve better.
Rebecca Avey, President of CUPE 7575: I represent over 1700 educational assistants and student support supervisors throughout the Thames Valley District School Board. 10 years ago, our job was to provide educational assistance to small groups of students and support them in math and English and their other studies. Now we rarely do that. Our job has become about protecting students, our coworkers and ourselves from violence. Our primary role at this point is behavioural support for students who are struggling to self-regulate within the education system. I’ve seen the learning conditions change from a model that was student focused and supportive, to a model that is reactive and lacking supports. Right now, all we’re trying to do is get students and workers safely through their day. The absolute bare minimum. We need the government to implement a plan for concrete action immediately.
Tracey Cooper, President of CUPE 4186: CUPE 4186 represents almost 2000 CUPE education workers in the London District Catholic School Board. Our members deal with extreme understaffing, underfunding, a dire need for more supports for students and staff, and violent incidents every day. Members are exhausted and burned out. They are frequently taking on two or three of their coworkers’ jobs at once without getting paid for it. The survey showed that over 140 full-time jobs are done for free by CUPE education workers at London-area school boards. We can’t allow this to happen any longer. We need more funding, and we need more staffing and support.
Mary Henry, President of CUPE 4222: Our members who work in custodial services and in maintenance are overburdened with work; they cannot finish their workloads in a day. Almost all maintenance workers say there are jobs that are delayed or go undone because there’s just too much work and not enough staff. Our clerical workers are tremendously overworked: their offices become a dumping ground for students with unmet needs. Unfortunately, violence is a major issue for all of our members. They face harassment, intimidation and hostile environments coming from all angles. This must stop. Our members can’t go on like this and neither can our students.
Numbers at a Glance:
- Thames Valley DSB has faced a minimum of a $93.65 million cut to real per-pupil funding in 2024-25 and London District Catholic School Board has faced a real per-pupil cut of $31.23 million.
- 61 percent of members say they do unpaid work for the school board, effectively subsidizing schools to make up for the lack of funding. Extrapolating the amount of unpaid work reported to the entire membership of these locals, an equivalent of 141 Full-Time Equivalent jobs worth of unpaid work are done by CUPE members.
- 85 percent of respondents say they feel stress due to an excessive workload.
- 85 percent of all respondents say they experience violent or disruptive incidents in their work area, 42 percent say it happens every day. 97 percent of Educational Assistants or Child and Youth Workers experience violent or disruptive incidents in their workplace.
- 79 percent of respondents say there are not enough people employed in their own job classification at the school board or in their school. 84 percent of respondents said that services for students, staff, or the school community would be improved with more staff in their classification.
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For more information, contact:
Shannon Carranco
CUPE Communications
[email protected]
514-703-8358
lg/cope491
