Ontario education support workers have voted to accept a new deal with the provincial government, ending a long and contentious negotiation process.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents about 55,000 workers, announced the ratification of the contract Monday morning.
According to the negotiating committee, about 73 percent of members voted in favor of the tentative agreement.
“For the first time in a decade, education workers have reached a collective agreement that did not impose conditions through legislation,” the union said in a statement.
The union said they had “unprecedented membership engagement,” with about 76 percent of its members participating in the ratification vote.
Under the new agreement, all workers will receive a fixed wage increase of $1 an hour, or about 3.59 percent annually. The government has said this would result in a “significant increase in pay” for the union’s lowest-ranking members.
The bargaining committee also secured reimbursement for the two days workers participated in a political protest over Bill 28, legislation that forced workers into a minimum contract and made the strike illegal.
Only a tentative deal was reached when education workers agreed to end their province-wide strike in exchange for the government overturning the legislation.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Union Council, said she was proud of her members for standing firm.
“We looked down on this government. After a decade of being dictated to, we refused to back down even when our bargaining and strike rights were taken away from us,” he told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
“We rocked this province with our protests. We showed Ontarians that you can stand up to a bully for what’s just and right. And we ended up with a deal that more than doubled the wage increase the government tried to force on us.” .
Walton, who previously said she was unhappy with the contract because it did not include new money for services or personnel, said she was one of the people who voted to accept the deal.
“I was once told in my early years that good negotiations mean that both sides leave disappointed,” he told reporters on Monday, adding that he expected the results to be “tighter” than they were.
“I think what this showed is that we made the right decision as a bargaining committee to bring the deal back to the workers.”
Walton noted that CUPE members are “setting the tone” for other unions currently undergoing their own public bargaining, including those representing teachers in Ontario.
“We will stand by their side and continue to fight.”
Members had until December 4 to choose whether to accept or reject the deal.