TORONTO – School board leaders gave endorsement and approval of the tentative settlement reached with Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) earlier this month.
CUPE leaders were among those who approved the Oct. 6 tentative settlement on Oct. 12.
There will now be two weeks of ratification votes by members of 109 CUPE bargaining units across the province.
“This tentative agreement invests in high-quality services for students in Ontario’s schools, now and for the future,” said Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU). “And at the same time, it ensures that education workers have secure jobs and decent benefits.”
OSBCU negotiated a tentative central agreement for the 55,000 education workers it represents across Ontario – education assistants, custodians, early childhood educators, school secretaries and clerical staff, library workers, IT technicians, maintenance and tradespeople, food service workers, child and youth workers, speech language pathologists, professionals, paraprofessionals, and others.
Locally CUPE represents custodial and maintenance staff and English as a second language (ESL) instructors in the adult continuing education program for the Upper Grand District School Board.
In Wellington County, CUPE education workers are located in Upper Grand elementary schools in Aberfoyle, Alma, Drayton, Erin and Harriston, as well as high schools in Fergus and Erin.
In the Wellington Catholic District School Board CUPE represents custodians in Guelph, Rockwood and Erin, as well as system maintenance staff.
