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OSHAWA, Ont. – School board workers at the Durham District School Board are heading back to work Tuesday, following a ratification vote today that approved a tentative agreement reached over the weekend, between the board and Local 218 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

We are very pleased that an agreement is in place to benefit our members, students and the entire school community,” said Don Bryans, president of CUPE 218. “The contract includes more time for educational assistants (EAs), and additional staffing and hours of work for office, clerical, technical staff and maintenance and custodial workers, as well as wage and benefit improvements.”

The new three-year contract includes an extra 15 minutes a day for EAs, additional hours to help office, clerical and technical staff and new full-time equivalent positions for maintenance and custodial workers. CUPE 218 represents 2,100 school board workers in 133 schools, serving over 70,000 students in the Durham region. The workers have been on strike since March 21 and have been working without a contract for over a year. 

It’s unfortunate that we needed a strike to make any progress on workloads and staffing levels,” said Bryans. “Our victory for more time with students would not have been possible without the strong support of our members, the Durham school community, parents and residents during our strike.”

The Ontario Liberal government needs to fix the funding formula and invest in frontline school services to allow school boards to address these issues without labour strife,” said Bryans.  “Our struggle for fair funding will continue in the upcoming provincial election – our community must stand together to make sure the provincial government is held accountable for the flawed funding formula that negatively affects students, workers and our schools.”

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For further information, please contact:

Don Bryans, President CUPE 218    905-439-2135
Joanne Wilson, CUPE National Representative 289-404-0797
James Chai, CUPE Communications   416-458-3983