Ottawa Catholic School Board to close on Friday

The Ottawa Catholic School Board will close on Friday with tens of thousands of education workers set to walk off the job that day.

“There will be no in-person learning at any OCSB schools on Friday,” a board spokesperson said Tuesday. “All OCSB students will take part in remote learning.”

Other local school boards are planning to stay open. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, which has no CUPE members, has a P.A. day scheduled for students.

Tens of thousands of librarians, custodians and early childhood educators across Ontario are set to walk off the job on Friday after the provincial government tabled legislation to ban a strike and push a contract on those education workers.

The government is aiming to get the legislation passed before Friday’s planned strike. Legislators met for a second reading of the bill on Tuesday morning.

The Canadian Union of Public Employee's Ontario School Board Council of Unions (CUPE), which represents approximately 55,000 members, is looking for annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent.

The latest offer from the province is a four-year deal that would cap annual raises for members making less than $43,000 at 2.5 per cent and provide 1.5 per cent raises for everyone else.

CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn said Tuesday morning that the walkout could continue beyond his Friday. Ottawa Catholic School Board

“We see no other option here but to stand up and to say it’s not OK to steamroll over people’s rights and to ignore the call for investments in our public education system,” he told Newstalk 580 CFRA. “At this point, our members are clear that they’re prepared to continue beyond Friday if it’s necessary.

“That’s not what we want to do. Nobody wants this to happen. People want to be at work doing the jobs they love. But we need a partner who will come and sit at the bargaining table and actually come to an agreement that will make the investments necessary to allow that to happen.”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce introduced the anti-strike legislation Monday after an emergency mediated session the day before between the CUPE, the province, a mediator and school board representatives failed to yield a deal.

Members of Ontario's legislature opposing the anti-strike bill said it was “horrendous” that the average salary of a worker in the CUPE bargaining unit asking for a wage bump is $39,000 as inflation enters into double digits.

- with files from CTV News Toronto