Laura Walton, a spokesperson for CUPE said at a press conference on Dec. 5 that 76 percent of members, about 41,000, voted in total. A minority, 11,229, or 27 percent, voted against the deal. Walton said the vote in favour was higher than expected.
The vote follows 170 days of contract negotiations between the Ford government and the union, which now gives education workers, including janitors, librarians, and education assistants, a $1-per-hour raise each year of the contract, representing an increase of 3.59 percent annually on average.
All contracts with Ontario’s education unions, including those representing teachers, expired at the end of August. Other union negotiations are still ongoing.
The government passed back-to-work legislation, Bill 28, pre-emptively on Nov. 3, which imposed a four-year contract on workers and gave the province the power to issue fines of up to $4,000 per person for each day on the picket line, plus $500,000 in fines per day for the union. This followed the union giving a five-day strike notice to the province.
On Nov. 4, education workers started a two-day walkout that shut down many schools. Premier Doug Ford offered to repeal the legislation if the union returned to contract negotiations.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce, on behalf of the province, went to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, for a declaration the walkout by education support workers was illegal, arguing that CUPE has “called or authorized” an unlawful strike.
Both sides argued over the definition of a strike before the board, with CUPE stating that the labour action was not a strike, but rather a “legitimate public protest.” The hearing was ultimately moot, because the government repealed Bill 28.
Leece told reporters that one million students who missed school across the province on Nov. 4 had a right to an education and the province would get kids back in classrooms using “every tool available.”
The union had demanded guarantees of $100 million more in funding for increased staffing and wanted an early childhood educator in every classroom.
