List of Hamilton city services that will be impacted by CUPE strike
Published November 4, 2022 at 11:16 am
Hamilton residents can expect city services to be impacted by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) education worker job action.
The city says it has been communicating with school boards and community partners to discuss impacts and contingency plans.
Effective Friday, licensed public board childcare centres for children under four years old will operate under modified hours, before and after school care is cancelled for the public and Catholic boards, and Mon Avenir Conseil Scolaire Catholique, and public board EarlyON Child and Family Centres in schools are closed.
Nine recreation centres with shared public board gyms will have registered programs suspended, as will drop-in programming at:
- Ryerson Recreation Centre
- Dalewood Recreation Centre
- Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre (Cathy Weaver School Gym)
- Hill Park Recreation Centre
- Sir Allan McNab Recreation Centre
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier Recreation Centre
- Beasley Recreation Centre
- Sir Winston Churchill Recreation Centre
- Dominic Agostino Riverdale Community Centre
Vaccine clinics being delivered in schools may be delayed or paused without the support of school staff assisting. Students who require additional support from their education assistants in the school setting may not be able to receive their vaccination.
Dental health and vision screenings in schools may also be delayed.
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Parenting groups and the Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program will continue if schools are open.
Routine public health inspections in schools will also be paused if inspectors cannot access school settings.
The city says it will continue to work closely with the school board and community partners and keep the community updated.
Striking Ontario education workers are set to picket at politicians’ offices across the province today, with a major demonstration planned for the legislature.
That’s where, a day earlier, the Progressive Conservative government enacted a law imposing contracts on 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and banned them from striking.
The law also uses the notwithstanding clause to protect against constitutional challenges.
But CUPE says the law is an attack on all workers’ bargaining rights and is staging a strike anyway, warning that it will likely last longer than one day.
The law sets out fines for violating a prohibition on strikes for the life of the agreement of up to $4,000 per employee per day, while there are fines of up to $500,000 for the union.
CUPE plans to fight the fines, but at the end of the day, the union has said if it has to pay, it will pay. CUPE leaders have previously suggested that the union seeks outside financial help from other labour groups.
–with files from The Canadian Press
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