The vast majority of the province’s education support workers have voted in favour of a new collective agreement with the province.
CUPE says a record 76 per cent of its members chose to vote and 73 per cent accepted the offer.
It was a particularly rocky 170 days of negotiations to reach the agreement that saw 55,000 school workers walk off the job and shutter many schools across Ontario. It also saw the Ford government legislate a contract that included a notwithstanding clause, which was quickly repealed when the union agreed to go back to work and continue negotiations.
The new collective agreement sees education support workers, including administrators, custodians, librarians and early childhood educators, receive a 3.59 per cent wage increase or $1 an hour, over the four years of the contract.
