CUPE members will be back to work on Tuesday. The union representing 55,000 Ontario education workers says protest sites “will be collapsed” starting tomorrow.
Premier Doug Ford Ford announced earlier in the day that he was willing to repeal the law that also banned the workers from striking and pre-emptively used the notwithstanding clause to guard against constitutional challenges.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, says she hopes the union’s gesture of “good faith” in ending its walkout is met with similar good faith by the government at the bargaining table.Today marked the second day out of the classroom for hundreds of thousands of students in Ontario as many schools were closed to in-person learning as a result of the walkout. Locally, demonstrations this morning took place outside the office of MPP Ric Bresee in downtown Napanee.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce released a statement, saying: “CUPE has agreed to withdraw their strike action and come back to the negotiating table. In return, at the earliest opportunity, we will revoke Bill 28 in its entirety and be at the table so that kids can return to the classroom after two difficult years. As we have always said and called for, kids need to be back in the classroom, where they belong.”
There has been no official timeline set for negotiations.
Written by Emily Chatwood with files from the Canadian Press
