The Windsor Essex Catholic Education Centre. (Photo by Alexandra Latremouille)The Windsor Essex Catholic Education Centre. (Photo by Alexandra Latremouille)
Windsor

Schools To Stay Open During Strike

About 270 support workers and clerical staff at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board will be hitting the picket line on Monday.

They are in a legal strike position as of 12:01am Monday and since no new negotiations are scheduled they have notified the school board they will be going on strike.

A spokesperson from the board Stephen Fields says all schools will operate as usual on Monday morning and they plan to keep the schools open for the duration of the strike.

Unifor Local 2458 President Bruce Dickie says the two sides were very far apart when they last met last week.

"Even the starting point for our collective agreement. We had a contract imposed on us from 2012-2014 through Bill 115. We took that to the courts and the courts subsequently ruled that the government's actions were unconstitutional," says Dickie. "Our position has been that the courts have ruled that unconstitutional we're saying that the contract is null and void and those articles that were in our collective agreement before Bill 115 are back in the agreement."

Dickie says no new talks have been scheduled. Fields says the board is open to further negotiations but they have yet to receive a written response to the last contract offer.

Any community use of schools outside of school hours will be cancelled. Extracurricular activities will continue at the discretion of the principals at the schools. Fields says they will use management staff to make sure schools are maintained but will not bring in any outside workers.

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