Unions Concerned Over Education Minister’s Comments
Teachers and education workers love engaging in extracurricular activities with the kids, but they are doing so on their own time.
That’s the message from Laura Walton, the President of CUPE’s (Canadian Union of Public Employees) Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) in reaction to Monday’s announcement from the province.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce laid out the Plan to Catch Up which includes a return to in-person learning, on time, and with all the experiences students need and deserve like sports, clubs and field trips.
“Insisting (in extracurricular activities returning) is interesting because I think insisting is what communities and families and students, as well as education workers, have been doing in insisting that there is a safe, secure and successful school year with funding that comes with it,” Walton told Acadia News Tuesday.
The province and several education boards continue to negotiate for a new contract with the current deal set to expire on Wednesday, August 31st.
According to a report released in the spring, education workers are the lowest paid in the sector, earning on average only $39,000 a year.
Minister Lecce was also asked about legislating teachers and education workers back on the job if a new deal can’t be reached?
“We have landed deals with every single union in this province, as difficult as it was, we got to the finish line,” said Lecce Monday. “The message (that I have) to the teacher unions and the education workers is you have a willing partner in this government to sit down (and) hammer out a deal that is fair for the workers and is good for the children of this province.”
Walton is treading lightly when it comes to talks about forcing those in education back to work.
“For a party that claims and that won (an election) off of a platform of ‘we are the party of the worker’, it seems very interesting to me and almost contradictory that this party would then turn around and contemplate removing the right to free collective bargaining,” Walton mentioned.
OSBCU represents 55,000 members of CUPE who work in the public, Catholic, English, and French school systems.
