Niagara families received a call last night to keep kids home, unless a deal reached
For the time being, many schools are closed across the Niagara region due to a strike by Ontario education workers.
Many families with the District school board were notified last night to keep their kids home, unless notified a deal had been reached. That call did not come.
Now the province is vowing to fight what it calls an illegal strike.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the government put in a "good faith effort" to negotiate, but the Canadian Union of Public Employees wouldn't budge. He adds many children depend on food programs in many schools.
Education workers are set to picket at politicians' offices across the province today, with a major demonstration planned at the legislature.
The government passed a law imposing a contract on 55,000 workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees that bans them from striking.
CUPE says the law, which uses the notwithstanding clause to protect against constitutional challenges, is an attack on all workers' bargaining rights.
The union says it is staging a strike anyway, warning it will likely last longer than one day.
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