Unless the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board can reach a deal Friday with Unifor Local 2458, custodians, maintenance, office and technical staff will strike as of midnight.
President of Unifor Local 2458 Bruce Dickie says contract talks were already delayed while the school board waited to ratify agreements with its teachers, and recent court rulings have complicated an already challenging round of talks.
"Even the starting point of the collective agreement is in question," says Dickie referring to last week's court decision on Bill 115 which ruled a contract imposed by the province was unconstitutional. "The terms of that agreement [have been] sent back to the parties, so we're bargaining the terms of a collective agreement that begins in 2014 not knowing -- what position is going to be from 2012 to 2014.
"Yesterday [Thursday], the school board came in with a huge document basically gutting both collective agreements as their starting point, so it didn't make for any kind of true negotiation," he says.
A second court ruling found the province over-stepped its bounds and re-instated retiree benefits.
Dickie says if members do walk, staff and students at the board's elementary and secondary schools will notice the difference almost immediately.
"The health and safety and cleanliness of the schools," Dickie says. "The maintenance people keep the maintenance of the building up. We have our clerical, our secretarial and our technical people that look after the safety of the students."
Earlier this month, office workers gave the union a 97% strike mandate, while custodians voted 99% in favour.
Wages have been frozen for the past two years, and Dickie has said his members would like an increase in pay.