Many school boards across Ontario, including in St. Thomas and Elgin County, will be closed today as 55,000 educational support workers launch a strike.
Many boards have said they will remain closed for however long the strike lasts. Others will move to remote learning, claiming they can’t guarantee safety in the schools without custodians, early childhood educators and EAs.
CUPE spokesperson Laura Walton, an EA from Belleville told reporters the union plans to pay the fines for workers who strike.
She told reporters that the illegal strike isn’t a stunt.
Ontario’s Conservative government yesterday enacted a law imposing contracts on the workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and banned them from striking.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters that in the government’s view, the union is to blame for the legislation being passed.
Lecce says CUPE wouldn’t meet a key demand.
Members of many other unions are set to join CUPE members on the picket lines in solidarity for their fight.
Written by The Canadian Press with files from Andrew Buttigieg
