It has been learned that Ontario CUPE education workers such as custodians, librarians and school administration have voted in favour of strike mandate by 96.5%.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees saying more than 80% of its 55,000 education worker members support the demands.
There are bargaining sessions scheduled between CUPE and the government this Thursday, Friday, and October 17th and 18th.
Ontario has put forward an offer of raises of 2% a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25% for all other employees while the Union is looking for annual increases of 11.7%.
Bargaining sessions have been ongoing since the contracts expired August 31st.
myFM has reached out for comment to representation of MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton and we will have more as the story progresses.
myFM has received the following statement from Anu Dhar, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “We encourage the employer and the union to make every effort to resolve their differences at the bargaining table. We are confident that together the parties can reach a settlement”.
The Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development acts as a neutral overseer of the labour relations process in Ontario and must remain neutral during negotiations.
myFM also reached out to Huron Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, and her camp is working on providing us a direct statement from the Ministry of Education.