Ottawa, November 3: Ontario has passed legislation imposing a four-year contract on education support workers and making a planned strike by tens of thousands of education workers on Friday illegal.
Bill 28, or the Keeping Students in Class Act, uses the notwithstanding clause to legislate a contract onto workers while making it illegal to take any job action. The bill was tabled Monday, and passed Thursday afternoon.
Mediation fell apart between the education support workers and the Ontario government earlier in the day, with neither party reaching an agreement.
Minutes after the bargaining committee released its statement, Lecce said at a news conference the province made a “good faith effort”, but the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wouldn’t budge and take their threat of a strike off the table.
The union has said, that despite the legislation, its members will take part in a province-wide strike “until further notice,” starting Friday.
However Lecce said that “if they proceed with it, it will be illegal.”
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