Lecce announces ongoing contract negotiations with Ontario educator

Education Minister Stephen Lecce is scheduled to speak Wednesday morning as contract negotiations between education aid workers and the government continue.

Lecce will give a presentation on Holocaust education at 11:00 am at the Beth Emes Vice Yehuda Synagogue in North York.

CP24.com will stream the announcement live.

The minister is expected to face questions about ongoing contract negotiations with the Canadian Union of Civil Servants (CUPE) after he said the government would withdraw a law that made their strike illegal.

About 55,000 members of CUPE, including early childhood educators, parents, teaching assistants and administrative staff, protested last Friday in response to the passage of Bill 28, also known as the “Keep Students in Class Act.” did the activity.

The bill, which passed last Thursday and has not yet been formally repealed, uses the Despite Clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and force employees into contracts.

The law also made strikes illegal and imposed large fines for individuals and labor unions to participate in labor action.

The strike has prompted most school boards across the state to shift to remote learning.

On Monday, Prime Minister Doug Ford offered to repeal Bill 28 as a “sign of good faith” to get students back in class.

CUPE agreed to the government’s proposal, ending four days of protests on Tuesday with workers returning to classes. Contract negotiations have since resumed between CUPE and the government.

Ford said on Tuesday morning that his government had an “improved proposal” for the union and that he was “looking forward to completing the negotiations by the end of the week.”

Later on Tuesday, CUPE tweeted that unconfirmed reports that the 3.5% and 2% proposals were passed contained “multiple issues.”

they said they had not received the offer from the government

CUPE, which has been asking for an 11.7% annual salary increase, said last week that their latest offer is about half the original offer.

Meanwhile, the government proposed an annual wage increase of 2.5% for employees earning less than $43,000 and 1.5% for all other employees.

Using Katherine DeClerq’s file from CTV News Toronto