Catholic board prepares for remote learning ahead of possible CUPE strike

Schools within the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) are preparing after Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario – (CUPE) served notice on Sunday, saying if there is no contract is in place by Nov. 3, workers will strike effective Friday.

WCDSB has more than 1,200 staff represented by CUPE, in multiple different roles in schools.

CUPE represents staff that includes custodians, maintenance, adult ESL instructors, education assistants, and other staff such as librarians and supervisors within the WCDSB.

The Catholic school board says that given such a large number of potentially absent staff, should a strike occur, it will not be possible to safely open and operate its schools.

“This decision to close our schools is in keeping with many other Catholic Boards across the province who have a large portion of their employee groups represented by CUPE,” the WCDSB said in statement, Monday.

“With schools closed to in-person attendance, we will move directly to remote leaning.”

This week, parents are being asked to complete a brief survey to indicate if there are any technology device needs that their children may have.

Devices will be provided to students who need them in advance of any school closure.

The board did not provide information about how attendance would be taken, or expectations of students whose parents are unable to make accommodations for remote learning.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to ensure the learning of all students keeps moving forward,' WCDSB said.

“We will keep you updated as further information becomes available.”

On Sunday, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions’ Central Bargaining Committee was presented with a final pass from the Ministry of Education. According to the committee, members were told that if they did not accept the offer, the Conservative government would introduce legislation and impose it.

Since then, the committee says it has seen a number of 'misconceptions and fallacies about the government’s offer'.

“Stephen Lecce claims that the government’s latest offer is generous and meets the needs of workers. This is not true. While the wage increase numbers may look like an improvement over their previous offer, the way they structured the offer, that they intend to impose, would push more workers into poverty,” CUPE said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the Ontario School Board Council of Unions’ central bargaining committee, they work 32.5 hours a week for 43 weeks of the year and are laid off for the rest of the time. They make just $36,293 a year, well below the government’s talking point of $43,000, and will only receive 1.5 per cent from the government’s offer. This amounts to just .39 cents more an hour.

According to CUPE, more than half of employees work at least one additional job to make ends meet and 60 per cent are laid off every summer.

A personal support worker at Waterloo Catholic District School Board earns $25.97 an hour, just two cents over the cut-off salary in the government’s offer.

The committee says that more than half of CUPE’s 55,000 education worker members, the lowest paid education workers in the sector, would only get 1.5 per cent.

“This proposal is not intended to offer a fair wage increase, and ‘simply put, it does not work for workers,” the committee said.

Education workers have been trying to negotiate a collective agreement with the Council of Trustees’ Associations (CTA) and the Ford government for five months.

More than 70 per cent of Ontario’s 55,000 frontline education workers are women. CUPE claims that from 2012 to 2021, the lowest-paid education worker has already taken a government-legislated 11 per cent wage cut.