Canadian Union of Postal Workers stands in solidarity with CUPE-represented Education Workers in Ontario

Tuesday November 1 2022

BY MAIL AND EMAIL

November 1, 2022

Hon. Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
Room 281, Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A1

Hon. Stephen Lecce
Minister of Education
438 University Avenue, 5th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2A5

Dear Premier Ford and Minister Lecce,

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers stands in solidarity with CUPE-represented Education Workers in Ontario.

Our school system relies on these workers – meaning all working families rely on them. They are primarily women, and they have seen shrinking real wages for too long. More than half of them need to work a second job just to make ends meet. They care for and support our children’s education, and these conditions are unacceptable.

CUPW is serious about addressing the gender pay gap. We put pay equity on the table for our Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC), also predominantly women, and we won a pay equity process that finally saw RSMCs paid wages that are equivalent with a predominantly male group doing the same work.

We also know too well the injustice of legislation that interferes with the right to free and fair collective bargaining. Too many times, postal workers have lived that experience, and we can assure you of this: Legislation that violates workers’ collective bargaining rights solves nothing. It occupies the courts, it defers unresolved issues to the next round of bargaining and increases rather than forestalls the risk of labour disruption.

Your government puts the CUPE education workers in the position of having to resist such legislation, and postal workers will stand behind them. Your government must refrain from violating these workers’ rights with such legislation, and instead direct your negotiators to stop rejecting CUPE’s proposals to improve their working conditions and take this opportunity to restore decent funding to our schools.

Our over 60,000 members depend on good schools and fairer conditions for education workers, and we stand for free collective bargaining. It is time to invest in education workers for the benefit of us all.

Sincerely,

Jan Simpson
National President

UPDATE – DOUG FORD’s BILL C-28 RECINDED ON THE ONTARIO TEACHERS AND SUPPORT WORKERS RIGHT TO NEGOTIATE FOR A FAIR CONTRACT

Monday November 7, 2022

Today the Ontario Teachers Federation, support workers and many of our Canada’s labour leaders held a news conference to announce and confirm, that Premier Doug Ford of Ontario will be repealing the entire legislation of Bill -28. Here is the news conference as posted via YouTube.