About 370 support employees of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board are walking off the job Monday morning.
The president of Unifor Local 2458, one of the units representing office workers, technicians and custodians, confirmed to Blackburnnews.com Sunday night that they will strike. Local president Bruce Dickie said they are ready to head back to the bargaining table.
"When talks ended a week ago Friday, we told them we're available at any time, right up to midnight tonight, and we've heard nothing from them," said Dickie.
Dickie said retirement benefits remain the biggest sticking point, an issue the union has been to court over. Ontario Bill 115 imposed a contract on the union that expired in 2014, and it was later ruled unconstitutional. Still, the conditions imposed under Bill 115 have lingered, much to the chagrin of the union.
"After over a year-and-a-half of trying to get them to the bargaining table, they came back in March or April and put a proposal in with takeaways in almost every single article of these collective agreements. And, these collective agreements have been around for decades," said Dickie.
Dickie said that their goal remains to get a fair and reasonable agreement.
Catholic school board spokesman Stephen Fields told Blackburnnew.com last week that the board is willing to go back to the table, but the union has failed to respond to their latest written contract offer.
Fields said that all Catholic school buildings will be open and function as usual, with administrators covering the duties of those who have walked out. No plans have been made to bring outside temporary employees. However, any community use of school buildings outside of school hours will be cancelled, and extracurricular activities will proceed at the discretion of the school principals.
Dickie said students and parents arriving for school Monday may see picket lines, but added that the union has taken into consideration any impact the strike may have.
"Certainly we're encouraging the parents to talk to the trustees and talk to the director of education and tell them to get this thing resolved, so we can get back to normal," said Dickie.