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TORONTO, Ont. – Thirty busloads of striking school support workers from Durham Region will descend on Queen’s Park this Thursday to highlight the fact that the McGuinty government is continuing to underfund school operations and fuel province-wide labour unrest.

Despite our repeated attempts, Premier McGuinty and Education Minister Kathleen Wynne are ignoring the fact that school support workers have continued to be underfunded and overworked to the detriment of students and the health and safety of our schools,” says CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan. “These funding flaws will continue to fuel problems at school board bargaining tables across the province until the McGuinty Government fixes the faulty funding formula.”

Twenty-one hundred members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 218 at Durham Public School Board went on strike on Wednesday, March 21st. They include Educational Assistants (EAs), office, clerical and technical staff, and custodial and maintenance workers.

At this event:
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2007
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Location: Queen’s Park lawns

Spokespeople will highlight the fact that:

 

  • Under the provincial government’s General Legislative Grants (GLGs) for school boards released this past Monday, funding for school operations—as a percentage of overall funding—will decline to 9.36% in 2007-08 from 9.7% in 2005-06.
  • While every school board got 3% more for wages in the GLGs, the Durham School Board is refusing to pass along this wage increase to its support staff.
  • The current underfunding of school operations, like cleaning and repairs, could be fixed by an influx of $375 million a year for all school boards.

 

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For more information, contact:
Valerie Dugale CUPE Communications 647-225-3685
Don Bryans President, CUPE 218 905-571-7879
Sid Ryan President, CUPE Ontario 416-209-0066 COPE491/EW