Schools shut as 55,000 education workers strike in Canada’s Ontario

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Some 55,000 education workers went on strike on Friday in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario after failing to reach an agreement with the provincial government for better pay and more frontline staff in schools.

The workers, which include educational assistants, secretaries and library workers, served a notice of strike on Sunday saying they had been unsuccessful in negotiating a new contract with the Doug Ford-led Ontario government.

In anticipation of the strike, school boards in Toronto and Ottawa notified parents that schools would be shut for in-person learning on Friday, and that students would need to work independently at home.

Ford’s Progressive Conservative government says the workers’ demands are too high and has passed a controversial law to force a contract on the workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and prevent them from going on strike. It also includes a daily C$4000 fine for striking workers, which the union has said they will fight or pay, if needed.

Still, on Friday morning, workers had started picket lines at dozens of locations across the province, including outside the office of Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

Lecce, calling the strike illegal in a statement on Friday, said the government had filed a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board against CUPE workers.

“Nothing matters more right now than getting all students back in the classroom and we will use every tool available to us to do so,” Lecce said.

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