Ontario: The Ford government will table a new bill on Monday to impose a four years contract on the education workers in order to avoid a strike.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (COUPE), which represents Ontario’s 55,000 education workers, has given a five-day notice to strike in the province on Sunday.
After an unscheduled meeting on Sunday afternoon, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said they now have no choice but to introduce a new bill as the union has adamant for a strike. He said that it is a question of the future of the children and this decision has to be taken to continue their studies.
Laura Walton, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, said the government was not only preparing to stop education workers from going on strike, but was also preparing to force contracts on them.
The union has been demanding a increase of 11.7 per cent in annual allowances citing rising cost of living and historically low pay. But the government’s latest offer is employees those earning less than $43,000 a 2.5 per cent salary increase per year, while a 1.5 per cent increase in pay for those who earning above $43,000 annually, will now be legally imposed on the workers.