THUNDER BAY – Lakehead District School Board officials have their fingers crossed that school support staff won’t go on strike next week.
But, in the event that there is a walkout, the board doesn’t plan to close the doors to its schools.
School support staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who earlier this week initiated work-to-rule job action, can walk off the jobs as early as next Monday, though negotiations are expected to resume on Friday afternoon.
“We’ve all got our fingers crossed that they come to a negotiated settlement or at least make enough progress at the table that we’re not facing a strike on Monday,” Lakehead board business superintendent David Wright said on Thursday.
A number of the province’s largest school boards – including the Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, York Region District School Board, York Catholic District School Board, Ottawa Catholic District School Board and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board – have all announced that schools would be closed in the event of a Monday strike.
Wright said there are about 150 CUPE members – custodians, maintenance workers and cafeteria staff – who are employed by the board. Unlike several of the boards that have announced plans to shutter their schools in the event of a strike, the Lakehead board’s early childhood educators, office staff and student support professionals are represented by other unions.
“We’ll be able to keep our schools open on Monday and then we’re going to do our best to support it as long as possible. CUPE plays an important role in our schools. They have difficult jobs. This isn’t something we can sustain indefinitely,” Wright said.
“We really have an obligation to our students to provide them a safe learning environment and we’re going to do everything we can to continue to provide that for as long as possible.”
The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board does not have any staff members represented by CUPE.
While schools would be open in the event of a strike, Wright acknowledged there would be impacts both inside and outside of a building.
Though they’ll remain open spaces, high school cafeterias won’t serve food and vending machines won’t be restocked. Non-unionized staff will help clean schools but Wright said the same level of cleanliness shouldn’t be expected.
“Our non-union staff is going to be working to keep schools at a level they can remain open and they can remain safe,” he said, adding the board won’t outsource the work.
Wright said board officials have had discussions with the union about picket lines, leading to assurances that there won’t be any pressure tactics or surrounding vehicles trying to enter school parking lots.
“It can be an intimidating situation. We understand that. We ask everybody to be respectful. Certainly that’s the message we’ve given to all of our staff, is that this is a legal strike,” Wright said. “We want people to be patient. We want people to have respect.”
