An estimated 55,000 Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) education workers—including custodians, educational assistants, social workers, early childhood educators, and secretaries—are preparing for a massive strike in Ontario, on Friday, Nov. 4. Premier Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce have tabled draconian back to work legislation and are using the notwithstanding clause to take away their bargaining rights. As teachers we must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters on the picket lines!
Despite the fact that CUPE education workers are the cornerstone of our schools, they are the lowest paid workers in the school system. On average, they make $39,000 per year. To add insult to injury, they have seen their wages fall 11 per cent since 2012 under ten years of Liberal and Conservative wage caps. Under the Ontario government’s current offer, their wages would fall six per cent per year in real terms. With inflation at a near forty year high, our coworkers are refusing to accept poverty wages any longer. The union is asking for an 11.7 per cent wage increase per year and for an increase in funding to hire more support staff. A rank-and-file group in CUPE 4400 has raised the demand for a proper COLA (cost of living adjustment) clause. This is exactly the type of militant class action we need to fight inflation and the cost of living crisis!
At the height of our strike in 2019-2020, 200,000 teachers from all four teachers’ unions came out to fight for smaller class sizes and against Doug Ford’s cuts. The height of this was on Feb. 21 where we shut down schools in the entire province. However, we made a fatal mistake. Rather than striking until the cuts were withdrawn, the struggle was de-escalated, giving the upper hand back to the government. None of the fundamental issues have changed—schools are even more underfunded and understaffed than they were three years ago. We can’t make the same mistake this time. We have to stand together and be prepared to escalate and spread the struggle.
Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce are raising a hue and cry about how selfish education workers are to even think about striking when the pandemic has left so many behind. To be clear, no one wants students to miss out on learning, however, the government’s intransigence is forcing our hand. CUPE winning demands for livable wages and hiring more support staff would greatly improve the quality of education for students—unlike Ford’s plan to make $12.3 billion in cuts to education over the next decade. If Mr. Ford and Mr. Lecce care so deeply about ensuring that students don’t miss out on learning, then why not give in to the union’s just and reasonable demands for livable wages?
Support workers are the backbone of our education system. As an occasional teacher working in both secondary and elementary schools in my board, I know firsthand how indispensable support workers are to the functioning of our schools and the well-being of our students. Administrative assistants and secretaries ensure that learning continues when teachers are away—often having to find creative ways to ensure all classes get covered in the midst of the current teacher shortage. They stay with students whose guardians are late picking them up, and they are the ones who make phone calls home if students are not feeling well. Custodians make sure our schools are a healthy environment for our students to learn. Without custodians there making repairs on dilapidated infrastructure, cleaning up children’s vomit, and sanitizing the school building, our schools would be hazardous for students and staff. They are vital in keeping schools healthy places where kids can learn.
I work in an inclusive school board where all students with high support needs are in mainstream classes. Having enough Educational Assistants (EAs) and Child and Youth Care Workers makes all the difference. In schools where there are enough EAs, they are able to help students learn how to use augmentative and alternative communication devices to communicate, establish clear routines to give students the structure they need to learn, and help students cope with the challenges of the school day. In schools where there are not enough EAs and support staff, the students suffer. Getting students to do classwork can quickly become overwhelming for high needs students. So, when there aren’t enough staff who can help students self-regulate and self-soothe when things become too challenging, it means that learning often falls by the wayside.
As teachers, we cannot do our jobs without support staff. In truth, we all work together to make sure that students’ educational needs are met. Therefore, we must stand together to reverse the clawbacks and cuts to education in the recent period. It’s a shame that education workers are organized across five different unions (CUPE, ETFO, OSSTF, AEFO, and OECTA) because it gives the bosses the upper hand in keeping us divided. CUPE workers are fighting for militant demands, and they will need the support of teachers to win.
Picket lines mean do not cross!
In a column for the Toronto Sun, Stephen Lecce wrote:
After years of pandemic disruptions and what feels like never-ending education union strikes, children and their parents deserve an uninterrupted return to normal. Our commitment is clear: we will stand up for your child’s right to learn, from September to June. Nothing is more important.
In other words, the government is going to try their damndest to force teachers to cross picket lines by keeping their schools open. But Lecce and school board offices don’t decide if schools stay open, we do. In my board, the principals had a meeting to discuss whether schools could function without CUPE workers. Knowing damn well that they cannot, my board has decided to move to remote learning. Make no mistake, this is still forcing us to cross picket lines and doing so in a way that keeps teachers isolated in their homes and minimizes the disruptiveness of the strike. This is unacceptable! It’s up to us to refuse to undermine the strike and stand with our brothers and sisters on the picket lines!
Spread the strike!
While publicly making statements in solidarity with CUPE online and at rallies, some union leaders are telling us that it is illegal to join them on the picket lines. ETFO sent an email to its membership stating all “members are legally obligated to attend to regular work duties as employees of their school board/educational organization.” They are using the letter of a law as a cover to cross picket lines and not mobilize the rank and file. This is a big mistake. If CUPE loses, we will be next on the chopping block.
The anger at the Ford government’s attacks on CUPE workers and the education system as a whole is palpable. We know that if CUPE loses, more EAs and support staff will leave, making our jobs even harder. We know that Ford will use the same legislation against us when we go toe-to-toe with the government in our contract negotiations later this year. We know that Ford is going to continue to make cuts to the education system, which will leave our students further and further behind. The energy to fight is there, but we need our leadership to have a backbone and mobilize the 200,000 teachers organized across the province. Our labour ancestors fought and died for the rights we have today. Not crossing the picket lines of another union in your workplace should be ABC. Instead of paying their solidarity in lip service, they should publicly state that they will never cross picket lines and organize mass assemblies to educate the membership on the necessity of a hard picket policy. After educating the membership, they should organize meetings in every local so the rank and file can plan and vote on how they will spread the strike and not cross CUPE’s picket line.
Back-to-work legislation has already been declared unconstitutional, but that does not stop Ford and Lecce from implementing it. They do not care about the letter of the law unless it benefits them, so why should we? We won our right to strike by defying the law en masse. We can defeat unjust laws on the picket lines. If CUPE workers defy back-to-work legislation, it would serve as an inspiration to the whole labour movement, telling Ford that he cannot trample on us any longer! If our union leaders refuse to mobilize us, it is up to us, the rank and file of the union, to fight and stand up against the relentless attacks and cuts to education.
A victory for the CUPE education workers would be a victory for the whole working class. Not only would their victory show the rest of the working class how we can fight against inflation and win, it would show us how to fight against cuts to education and for our students’ future.
Solidarity with CUPE education workers! Spread the strike!
Picket lines mean do not cross!
Strike until victory!
