As parents across the province prepare for schools to potentially shut down, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says the work action will last until they have a collectively bargained deal.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions, held a news conference on Wednesday afternoon where she claimed the union was left wondering if the government "ever wanted a deal at all" with 55,000 school support workers who are set to walk off the job.
"They've said no to every proposal, they've offered only cuts," Walton said of the province. "The government is outright refusing to participate."
CUPE has asked for an across the board, $3.25 an hour raise in each year of a four year contract.
Walton said that the government has said "no to every proposal," despite CUPE moving towards the government's position on some issues. She would not comment when asked whether one of the positions was that hourly raise, saying CUPE had promised mediator Bill Kaplan that it would not negotiate in public.
"The vast majority of our workers would only receive 1.5 per cent," Walton said of the raise provisions in the province's latest offer. "Let's be clear, it's a legislated offer. It's either take this or we legislate it."
As for the job action, it will last until there's a new deal.
"Nothing has changed, we served five days of notice on Sunday," Walton said when pressed by reporters on the union's plans beyond Friday. "Parents should be making arrangements and we will be proceeding. But that doesn't mean we're not going to try and get a deal before that happens."
Earlier on Wednesday at Queen's Park, Education Minister Stephen Lecce defended the proposed legislation. Premier Doug Ford said that Ontarians are "with strikes or with students," before more than a dozen members of the NDP caucus were ejected for breaking legislature rules.
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Lecce also said the province would return to the bargaining table if the union withdrew its five day strike notice. That is not something the union will accept.
"If this was really about preventing a strike and having those conversations, you don't come in tell somebody that we're going to legislate you," Walton said.
There will be no picket lines at schools. CUPE says workers will be protesting at the offices of MPPs around the province.