This is a historic day.
The Ford Conservatives have announced they will repeal Bill 28—the draconian, Charter-busting legislation that imposed a contract on CUPE education workers and stripped away their human rights and Charter rights to bargain freely and fairly.
This happened following a massive show of worker power, including rallies, support pickets, and a solidarity walkout by thousands of OPSEU/SEFPO Boards of Education workers.
To everyone who stood together against this bullying to win a major victory for every Ontarian: thank you!
We are pleased to have Ford’s commitment, but OPSEU/SEFPO is not standing down — we are standing by.
We will make sure that this is not just more of Ford’s empty words.
We’re going to continue in this fight alongside CUPE education workers until a fair deal is reached for CUPE workers, for our own Boards of Education workers, for teachers, and for all workers across this province.
The power of this moment cannot be understated.
The Ford government thought they could isolate vulnerable workers and pit them against other workers, but we showed them that when you come for one of us, you come for all of us.
Workers united can shut this province down.
The Ford government may not know what they’ve started, but they would do well to not forget this lesson.
In solidarity,
JP Hornick, OPSEU/SEFPO President
Laurie Nancekivell, OPSEU/SEFPO First Vice-President/Treasurer