Schools within the Lambton-Kent District School Board and the St. Clair Catholic District School Board are set to close on Monday, October 7 if a strike takes place.
“If an agreement is not reached this weekend and the strike proceeds, all LKDSB schools will be closed to students on Monday, October 7, 2019 for the duration of the strike,” Lambton-Kent District School Board officials posted to their website on Thursday.
“Please continue to check the LKDSB website throughout the weekend and including Monday morning for updates regarding whether schools will be closed beginning Monday, October 7.​”
The St. Clair Catholic District School Board issued a similar message on Thursday.
“If an agreement is not reached this weekend and the strike proceeds, all St. Clair Catholic schools will be closed to students on Monday, October 7, 2019 for the duration of the strike,” Catholic School Board officials stated.
“Please continue to check the Board website throughout the weekend and including Monday morning for updates regarding whether schools will be closed beginning Monday, October 7.”
Both school boards stated on their own website that on October 2, 2019, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) announced that they would begin a legal full withdrawal of services (strike action) in Ontario schools beginning on Monday, October 7, 2019 unless there is progress at the central bargaining table with the Ministry of Education and the trustees’ association.​
Both school boards said student safety is their top priority
“If the strike proceeds, CUPE staff will not report to work. In our schools and across our system, CUPE represents custodians, early childhood educators, educational assistants, secretaries, library and computer technicians and other school-based and central staff members. A full strike would mean none of these important supports for schools would be in place and the (school board) will not be able to safely operate our schools,” both schools posted on their website.
Both school boards said they are hopeful a fair agreement can be reached and the full strike action will be avoided.
Both school boards said they will update parents/guardians and all stakeholders as soon as new information becomes available.
“Due to anticipated school closures for an indefinite period of time, families are strongly encouraged to explore alternate child care arrangements,” both school boards stated.
From CUPE Ontario
Union officials stated more than 55,000 members of CUPE Ontario have begun legal job action to secure the education services students need at school.
They are education workers, represented by CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), working in our schools and board offices, in both the French and English systems, for public and Catholic boards, in communities across Ontario.
After years of Liberal underfunding, the Ford Conservatives have made a bad situation even worse, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Ontario’s schools in just the last year. Those cuts have resulted in lost services for students in schools and lost jobs for frontline education workers in our communities.
Our fellow CUPE members make our schools work. They keep them safe, clean and well-organized, while providing extra support to help students succeed. They work as educational assistants, custodians, office administrators, early childhood educators, trades people, instructors, library technicians, speech pathologists, IT specialists and in many other jobs.
CUPE’s 55,000 school board members are the backbone of our schools and have been on the frontline, fighting for publicly delivered education services and standing with students, parents and our communities against the Ford Conservatives’ cuts.
The education workers CUPE represents in Ontario are some of the lowest paid workers in our public education system. The majority are women and face layoffs each summer. They’ve faced years of cuts to the critical services they provide, seen inflation eat away at their take-home pay because of wage freezes and now, face a government determined to spend money on tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations, while saying frontÂline education workers and students need to accept cuts to services.
Enough is enough. CUPE Ontario education workers deserve respect. Students in our schools deserve properly funded, publicly delivered education services. Our communities need public services, not cuts.
CUPE education workers’ job action begins today with work-to-rule. Our members are prepared to escalate their job action plan if a fair collective agreement cannot be negotiated.
Throughout this process, CUPE Ontario is committed to rallying the support of our union, the broader labour movement and our communities in this critical fight for fairness, public services and respect.
Today, CUPE education workers begin job action with the support and solidarity of the other 215,000 CUPE members in the Province of Ontario who are municipal, health care, social services, university and airline workers.
As well as being members of CUPE, we are also parents and community members who value the hard work, dedication and critical public services provided to our province by school board workers. We are proud to stand with CUPE OSBCU education workers as they fight for these critical public services.
From the Minister of Education
My message to parents.
RETWEET if you agree. #ONpoli pic.twitter.com/F3qbTlCVq2
— Stephen Lecce (@Sflecce) October 3, 2019
