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YORK, Ont. – Members of local 1571 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have ratified a new collective agreement with the York Catholic District School Board. On October 19, members of local 1571 voted 88.6 per cent in favour of the proposed settlement, which was then ratified by the School Board. 

Among all CUPE school board bargaining units, local 1571 is the first group of custodial and maintenance workers to reach a settlement that includes the terms of the Provincial Discussion Table (PDT) agreement. The PDT agreement was reached last May between CUPE and representatives of the publically funded school boards, with the help of facilitators from the Ministry of Education.      

Andy Orfanakos, president of local 1571 indicated, members were glad with the outcome of bargaining. “This new collective agreement will insure our members a 3% wage increase per year for the next four years,” said Mr. Orfanakos. “We are also able to achieve some significant improvements with regards to benefits and baseline staffing.” 

Local 1571 also had another target in mind for this round of bargaining. “I think one of our biggest achievements this time was to convince the management team to bring back in our bargaining unit four maintenance positions that were previously contracted out,” said Mr. Orfanakos. “We were also able to from a joint Committee that will review the use of outside contractors.”

CUPE local 1571 represents more than 550 custodial and maintenance workers with the York Catholic District School Board.

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For information:

Andy Orfanakos, President, CUPE Local 1571, 416-885 9137
Luc Tittley, CUPE Communications, 416-910-2389