The union that represents some 55,000 Ontario education workers has filed a notice to \u201conce again shut down classrooms,\u201d the province’s education minister said Wednesday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stephen Lecce said in a statement that the development came \u201conly a few short days after talks restarted\u201d with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince resuming talks, we\u2019ve put forward multiple improved offers that would have added hundreds of millions of dollars across the sector, especially for lower income workers,\u201d Lecce said in a statement<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCUPE has rejected all of these offers,\u201d he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news comes ahead of a planned news conference by CUPE in which Laura Walton, president of its Ontario School Board Council of Unions, and Mark Hancock, CUPE national president, were set to provide an update on negotiations at 10 a.m<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CUPE\u2019s education workers are still in legal strike position after a conciliator issued what\u2019s known as a \u201cno board\u201d report on Oct. 17<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union does not have to re-request the report if it wants to strike again, but would have to give a notice of five days of their intentions to do so<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CUPE has not yet responded to the statement issued by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union and the Ontario government returned to the negotiating table last week following a two-day strike by the union\u2019s custodians, librarians and early childhood educators that forced the closure of hundreds of schools across the province<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those workers walked off the job after negotiations for new contracts fell apart and the government introduced and passed legislation that made it illegal to strike, despite the union being in a legal position to do so at the time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, Doug Ford\u2019s government repealed Bill 28\u2014which made use of the controversial notwithstanding clause\u2014making good on a promise to scrap the legislation in a good-faith effort to end the job action and return to negotiations<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Walton has said the union and the government are still \u201cfar apart\u201d on reaching a deal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe remain at the bargaining table committed to achieving a freely negotiated collective agreement that meets the needs of students, families, and workers,\u201d she said in a statement issued Tuesday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government\u2019s last offer to education workers included an annual wage increase of 2.5 per cent for those making less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent for the rest of the workforce<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Ford has said that a new \u201cimproved\u201d offer that would \u201cparticularly\u201d benefit lower-income workers would be put forth, though few other details have been revealed. Unconfirmed reports surfaced last Tuesday citing a new offer of 3.5 per cent and two per cent, but Walton said at the time that the union would not accept a two-tiered offer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news conference will be streamed live on CTV News Toronto and the CTV News app<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With files from Hannah Alberga<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The union that represents some 55,000 Ontario education workers has filed a notice to \u201conce again shut down classrooms,\u201d the province’s education minister said Wednesday Stephen Lecce said in a statement that the development came \u201conly a few short days after talks restarted\u201d with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) \u201cSince resuming talks, we\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n