Your central bargaining committee spent an extended day Tuesday and all day Wednesday trying to get the Council of Trustees’ Associations (CTA) and Ontario government to agree on something. Even bereavement leave was apparently too much to ask for.

It has become very clear that this government and our school boards need to see and feel the power building with workers to move them to respond to your proposals which, if accepted, would secure services for students & improve wages & working conditions for each of you.

A union representing education workers in Ontario has launched a new campaign arguing that a salary of $39,000 is “not enough” amid contract negotiations with the provincial government. The campaign centers around a radio advertisement that urges listeners to tell Premier Doug Ford that “$39,000 is not enough for education workers, or anyone.” In the ad, a male voice is heard listing off a variety of frontline education jobs, including educational assistants, secretaries and custodians. The voice says that because these employees are paid about $39,000 on average, “thousands are on the brink of poverty.”

As most families prepare for kids to go back to school next week and with pressure on parents to spend even more out of their own pockets on everything from school supplies to food and rent, you and your 55,000 coworkers are continuing to use the negotiations for your next collective agreement to secure more resources for students, families, and each other.

It’s still within the Stephen Lecce and Doug Ford’s power to direct their people at the table to accept our reasonable, necessary, and affordable Proposals for Student Success and Good Jobs or to at least make a respectful offer. But with the education minister wasting his time fearmongering and getting his math wrong, we’re filing for conciliation in the hope that a third party can help refocus the government and school board bosses on getting a fair collective agreement done.

Attempting to kickstart conversations on equity, violence, and health and safety, we’re disappointed to say that we made little headway. Additionally, although we raised the issues of job security and benefits, the employer maintained their concessions. Our proposal is reasonable, necessary, and ensures sustainability for education workers and the students and families who rely on the services we deliver. The gains you need rely on the high participation of you and your co-workers in the days ahead.

We have prepared a chart that compares the asks you have with the proposal your bosses and government have offered. It is clear that we are far apart on many issues. Bridging this gap will take a high participation of members!

Overall, we are disheartened with what was passed. Education Workers are fighting to stay out of poverty. The proposal of only $800 per year on average in face of skyrocketing inflation is not going to pay rising rent costs, put food on the table or addresses the staffing issues that are rampant in our schools.

We will walk you through the rationale for our proposal on wages to show why what we have put forward is reasonable, necessary, and affordable. Our last meeting it was suggested that the employer and crown had concerns about the cost of our proposal. We believe this presentation will demonstrate quite clearly that our proposal is affordable for the province. For our members it is simply not affordable to accept anything that is not a substantial wage increase. A decade of wage restraint has put our members in financial distress. Inflation is high and rising, putting far too many of our members on the brink of poverty.

Frontline education workers are not holding a strike vote on August 22. We know that workers understanding and using our collective power is crucial to winning long overdue gains for students, Ontario families, and each other, so we’re gathering to discuss what our response might be if the Ford government keeps delaying getting a deal done into the fall.