"We will be targeting Liberals in every riding," Ryan said, adding the union will use members on the ground as well as advertising to defeat the Liberals.
"Where we can find a Liberal, we'll be going after them. We don't believe the Liberals deserve our support. The premier has fashioned himself as the education premier but he's presiding over unprecedented cuts in the school board system," said Ryan.
The Liberals are referring to this strategy as self-serving, arguing that Ryan is concerned only about his own election campaign. He plans on seeking office in Oshawa.
"It's clear that [Ryan] was launching his election campaign," [Education Minister Kathleen Wynne] said. "This is obviously at least partly personal for him. He knows very well that we've been working with boards and we've put new money into the system."
CUPE Ontario is upset that the government has cut over 500 support staff from school boards across the province in an attempt to balance the books. The government also plans on cutting nearly 600 more jobs in the near future. While there has been peace amongst the government and the provinces teachers unions, the same cannot be said regarding support staff, who have has concession pushed upon them and who have been forced to hit the picket lines.
4 comments:
Which is why Sid should be supporting a one school system in both official languages. We are propping up redundant administration, services, and partially filled schools. One system would get rid of all this and plow more money back into the classroom and we would have more money to hire support workers. See
http://www.onessn.org/members.html
If you scroll down you will see me, as a public school trustee, talk why this would be good for kids and good for employees who work in education.
Wait - is CUPE-O's strategy to say "vote NDP" without actually saying "vote NDP"? I don't get it. They said they're targeting Liberals, but they didn't say what to do once we have them in our targets...
Tim- you were at the CUPEO convention...it's pretty clear that the union is firmly in the NDP camp. As far as this news story goes and not explicity supporting the NDP, I suspect that it was about optics (ie/ Sid's own campaign in Oshawa).
Jan- You're entirely correct. Sid should be supporting a single, unified, secular public education system. It's an issue of justice and fairness, and that's what CUPE ought to stand fo. Thus far, to my knowledge, he hasn't endorsed a unified system. Your argument about finances makes perfect sense, but sadly many people don't see it that way. The duplication of services and the increased cost associated with it is often a reason put forward to support a single school system, but one that many fiscal conservatives take the wrong way. Many see it as: two half full schools= two janitors, but one full school= one janitor. Boom, money saved on labour costs.
I fully agree that costs can be saved with a single school system, but like you say, that money needs to be reinvested into the unified system to improve it. Money can't be saved at the expense of people's jobs. Sid needs to make sure that, if he pitches the idea of a single system, his members are aware that their jobs won't be eroded and voters must be aware that excess savings must be re-invested into the system and not used to provide tax breaks.
Jan, thanks for the link. Great site. I had been to quite a few sites of the member groups, but was unaware of this umbrella organization. I'd love to see both the ONDP and CUPEO join, but I somehow doubt that.
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