As the province continues bargaining with CUPE to agree on a new contract for 55,000 education workers, Ontario’s premier said Wednesday he wanted to ensure fair negotiations.
“You have to differentiate between someone making roughly about $40,000 a year, compared to somebody that makes $100,000 a year. So I want to work collaboratively with CUPE and other partners to make sure we take care of the lowest paid workers within CUPE,” Premier Doug Ford explained.
“We gotta look at the whole province. This is a very small part, 55,000 workers. There’s 15 million people in here that are paying their wages,” he added.
The workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), returned to work Tuesday after the government confirmed in writing it would repeal Bill 28, which used the notwithstanding clause to impose a multi-year contract and made striking illegal.
Premier Ford said he was using the notwithstanding clause because a strike was a much bigger concern.
CUPE is questioning why the province has yet to repeal the bill, but Ford promises they will get that done.
When asked if he had any plans to resume masking mandates in schools, Ford urged people to wear a mask if they want to, and to get vaccinated for both the Flu and COVID.
