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It is with great sadness that I watch the rights of the educational workers represented by CUPE being crushed.
Stephen Lecce, Jill Dunlop and Doug Ford are just not being honest about this particular group of workers. This isn’t a teacher group. This is your school secretary who helps clean up your little son/daughter when they throw up at school or bandage their cuts. This is your custodian who unplugs your kids’ toilet and washes your kids’ floors. This is your educational assistant who works directly with your autistic son or keeps your non-verbal daughter clean and who makes your special-needs child feel valued and good and included.
They are all hourly employees. They are not paid in the summer months. The 2.5 per cent wage increase in the imposed contract works out to an increase of between 66 and 75 cents per hour. If this group works for 35 years, their pension would range from $16,000 to $23,000 per year. That pension is automatically reduced at age 65 by the amount of their CPP and OAS.
Please reach out to Jill Dunlop and ask her to change her tactics and to negotiate a settlement.
Peter Graham
Penetanguishene
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