For Immediate Release: Monday, October 31, 2022 – TORONTO, ON — The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) has issued the following statement:

Today, the Ford government announced heavy-handed legislation that imposes a four-year contract on the Ontario School Board Council of Unions’ (OSBCU) 55,000 Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) education workers, effectively undermining and disrupting their rights to free and fair collective bargaining.

OSSTF/FEESO, representing more than 60,000 members across Ontario, stands in solidarity with CUPE’s Members and their goal of negotiating a fair deal. The Ford government has taken away these workers’ constitutional right to bargain for improved working and learning conditions.

The Ford government’s use of the notwithstanding clause clearly demonstrates how unfair this legislation is to CUPE’s predominantly female education workers. They make an average of $39,000 and will have now been subjected to nearly a decade of significant wage restrictions.

OSSTF/FEESO’s focus remains on our negotiations and making progress at the bargaining table for our Education Worker and Teacher Members.

We continue to call on the Ford government to work within a fair process that respects and upholds all workers’ Charter rights, and to invest in public education and negotiate a fair deal that meets the needs of frontline education workers, students, and their families.”

• Karen Littlewood, President, OSSTF/FEESO

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has over 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.