Hello everyone,
On Monday, October 31st, the Ford Conservatives took the unprecedented step of proposing legislation that would force a contract on education workers, violating workers’ constitutional right to bargain fairly, keeping many workers in poverty, instead of continuing with negotiations.
To pass it, they’ve invoked the notwithstanding clause, overriding the Charters’ protections of the fundamental right to the collective bargaining process.
This is the first time in the history of Canada that a government has done so to pre-emptively end a labour action.
There’s a growing chorus of Ontarians, unions, and community organizations who are expressing their outrage about both the paltry elements of the government’s offer as well as their bullying tactics to ram it through.
The 55,000 members of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) – custodians, maintenance and library workers, secretaries, early childhood educators, educational assistants, IT professionals – who are working in publicly-funded schools across Ontario are the backbone of Ontario’s public education system. They are also the lowest-paid education workers, earning, on average, only $39,000 a year which has left many on the brink of poverty.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Sign their petition: https://cupe.on.ca/eduworkerspetition/
Send a message to the Ford Conservatives: http://DontBeABully.ca
An injury to one is an injury to all!
CUPE Local 3338 Executive Board