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More than 400 CUPE school board sector members attending a sector-wide emergency meeting in Toronto on January 21, unanimously endorsed participation in a provincial common issues negotiations process set to begin at the end of January.
Local union leadership acknowledged that the provincial process is the culmination of several years of sector-wide mobilizing initiatives, political lobbying, bargaining campaigns and key strikes geared to fixing faulty education funding for school support services.
Frank Ventresca, chair of the CUPE Ontario School Board Workers Coordinating Committee (OSBCC) told the group that this is the moment that we’ve been all working towards, referring to the years of bargaining coordination done by the sector.
In December, the provincial government agreed to facilitate a negotiations process between CUPE and school board employers focused on key support worker issues.
These provincial framework discussions are a first for CUPE in Ontario. Not since health care workers began to bargain centrally, more than 25 years ago, has one of our sectors been afforded the opportunity to rectify disparities in contract provisions on this scale.
This is a historic opportunity for CUPE members, said CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan in his presentation highlighting the rationale behind CUPE’s strategy and how the process may unfold. He committed to continue to work at the government ministerial level to remove roadblocks and liaise with other unions throughout the process.
Armed with input and thoughtful questions about the provincial negotiations, local union leaders spoke candidly about their commitment to ensuring the new process is a success.
CUPE Ontario and its school boards’ coordinating committee, CUPE National, CUPE staff, and locals in the sector are all working together to get the process off the ground.
With a clear funding and staff resources commitment, CUPE National president Paul Moist said the provincial framework process is an initiative directly in line with the last three versions of CUPE National’s Strategic Directions action plans to strengthen bargaining in the sector.
