It’s official. All schools across Trillium Lakeland District School Board (TLDSB) will be closed on Friday, November 4 and it’s not clear for how long.
Education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will walk off the job, despite legislation passed by the province today, November 3, making it illegal for the estimated 55,000 education workers to strike. Bill 28, Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022 also imposes a four-year contract on the workers which at TLDSB includes educational assistants, secretaries, clerks, computer technicians, and custodial and maintenance staff.
Mediation talks between CUPE and the Ontario government failed to reach a deal.
It is not yet clear how long the job action will last. In a release on the evening of Wednesday, November 2, TLDSB director of education Wes Hahn stated that “the CUPE members at TLDSB are vital to supporting student supervision and safety. Without these individuals, TLDSB cannot safely operate schools for students.”
Education Minister Stephen Lecce issued a statement on November 3 and said CUPE left the Province no choice but to pass the Keeping Students in Class Act.
“It’s disappointing that we got here. All along we had hoped to reach an agreement that’s right for students, right for parents, right for workers and right for taxpayers. But CUPE wouldn’t budge. They refused to take a strike off the table. I want to make something very clear. If CUPE continues with their strike, they will be breaking the law,” he stated.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Chas Clark: Never meant to ‘infer’ anything. I said those MPPs seem to be staying fit and eating well. I wondered if we are getting value for the money. Since most of those MPPs are pretty much silent, simply asses on seats; simply there to deliver handouts in their districts, then for me, they sure are overpaid and we are getting hosed..
But I can acknowledge your point. The person who is head of CUPE is also well paid as you state. I hope you can see that there is only one of that person, whereas there are 124 of those ‘Ford iks”. Doesn’t even seem fair, does it?
Mr. Ford is a bad person; petulant and a bully, bent on having his own way, no matter the damage he might inflict on this province.
Just for your information Mr. Markle, you quoted MPs salaries as between $140,000 to $160,000 and implied that they were overpaid. If you go on the web, you will find that the President of CUPE in Ontario has a salary of $153,614 per year with an expense allowance of $39,195.00.
I’ve often had to explain and defend my attitude toward politicians. Recently I was asked “did I really think all MPPs are cut from the same cloth?” I guess I would have to say yes, but that’s not a bad thing.
Most of these people stood for election in their districts and were selected by a ‘majority’ of local voters. I accept that they must be reasonable and upright citizens.
It is after their election that the problem begins for me. We, the voters, selected these people to be our representatives, our voices in the house; But party politics holds sway in the chamber, and that renders them, and us, mute. They no longer have a mind of their own. Grunt, wave, drool, clap and hoot when required. Voice an opinion without party sanction and you could find yourself benched or dismissed, An independent!
I walked a bit with my daughter-in- law in Bracebridge on Friday during the CUPE political protest. I didn’t last long because the lady covers too much ground for me to keep up.
These are good people, required to live on a fraction of what the elected earn; but they are still required to pay taxes to support the very politicians who deny them a raise!
I don’t think these MPPs harbored this attitude when they were at the same demonstrators doors, requesting their vote. There will be no quid pro quo, unless sanctioned by ‘the party’.
Politicians say that a minority government leaves them unable to get their agenda done. But, once they have a majority, it is we the people who usually get done.
As people, I can like or dislike them. They have that same right. But once elected, they no longer represent you or me. Once part of the herd, good people are obliged to support bad things.
This premier we have is a bad thing. A bully who has been given free reign to take apart all the things that is the Ontario I know. Freedom to cast aside the rights of people, to promote ideas that work, only in the world of him and a select few.
He is a peril in the offing. And to get his own way, he will bully good people to do those bad things.
Other unions, government or otherwise, expecting consideration in the future, you better support each other now.
Without the right to negotiate a fair deal, and strike if it’s not forthcoming, the right of the worker is null and void. We point it out when we see unfair labor practices in other countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia), but we really don’t have to go afield to see injustice in the raw.
So; I don’t mind the people, I just find them less than trustworthy as politicians.
That is not the way it should be.
Dangerous waters Mr Ford. Just imagine when CUPE is supported by all of the other unions in Ontario. Your province will be completely shut down. I think it’s time for a new leader of the conservative party. One who doesn’t hide in his cottage when the going gets rough. One with empathy for the working person that he is supposed to be supporting. By the people, For the people!
The current Ontario government is wading into dangerous waters of fascist-like governance.
I have no respect for this petty despot. Ontario may have given him a landslide victory, but I wonder how we are feeling now. And NO! I sure didn’t vote for the man.
In 2019, Ford gave MPPs a 14% raise!!!
It must be a lot easier to live on an MPP salary of 140 to 160 thousand dollars a year, than on the 35 to 45 thousand paid to those who are doing an actual job. It seems that some of those MPPs are staying fit and eating very well. Think we’re getting value for the money at the top end?
The government is threatening fines per day, of more than the people are paid per month! Barbaric. And that doesn’t sound like negotiating, to me anyway.
Who’s next?
Has the dictatorship started yet, or is it just in the offing?