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5 Ontario education unions hold strike votes as cuts squeeze classrooms
visibility comment0 event October 29, 2026 timer 12:43
The current stall in negotiations follows the government’s indication that it wants greater control over negotiating issues such as staffing redundancies.
Five major unions representing Ontario education workers will hold strike votes in November. Their contracts expired Aug. 31, 2026.
The move signals a potential showdown with Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative government after many months of warnings about deteriorating learning and working conditions in the province’s schools.
Strike votes do not necessarily mean that workers will walk off the job. In fact, 95 per cent of labour disputes in Canada are resolved without a strike.
Unions use strike votes as a pressure tactic to signal to employers that workers are united in their cause. The co-ordination of the unions’ votes is a clear message to the government that they’re prepared to collectively pursue their goals.
Why are unions now sending this message? The current stall in negotiations follows the provincial government’s indication to unions that it wants greater control over negotiating issues, such as staffing timelines related to transfer, surplus and redundancy, as well as professional development funding and contracting out.
This comes as unions say classrooms are under severe strain driven by the government’s chronic underfunding of education.
Greater control over staffing?
A move towards greater government control over staffing would fall in line with the Ministry of Education’s centralization of power, following a provincial takeover of eight school boards and restrictions on the power of elected trustees.
Unions know that exerting greater control over costs via centralization can be translated into additional cuts (and more underfunding and erosion of working and learning conditions).
Centralization also cuts out democratic input by local workers and their unions (and parents and trustees).
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Staffing cuts, lack of resources
Education workers are facing significant staffing cuts. Teachers are increasingly faced with larger classes of students with diverse learning and behavioural needs they say they are unable to meet.
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation notes that across provinces, teachers say students who need help aren’t getting it and teaching time is being lost as a result: Teachers in Québec, Saskatchewan and Alberta made the same point in recent bargaining.
Reports point to rising school violence and burnout driven by a lack of resources and supports. Ministry of Education data warns of a teacher recruitment and retention problem expected to worsen by 2027.
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Educational assistants are in short supply, making the situation particularly difficult for students with special learning needs.
Education unions say education workers have had enough. The Ford government says it’s made record investments in education, but research estimates a $6.5-billion-dollar shortfall in the system since the Conservatives came to power in 2018.
With school boards posting record deficits, students are losing programs and schools are in a state of disrepair.
Ontario teachers and other education workers (like educational assistants, early childhood educators, speech language pathologists, school psychologists, school custodians, office administrators) are represented by multiple unions. These unions will need to demonstrate unprecedented solidarity if they hope to achieve the funding improvements and retain local control over bargaining staffing and contracting out.
Local bargaining matters
Education unions in the province must follow a specific negotiations process set out in the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act.
The act was passed by the Liberals in 2014, and can be understood as part of an overall trend towards province-wide negotiations across Canada.
This legislation transformed education bargaining. It required that each union, at their own bargaining table with the government, must agree to which things will be bargained “centrally” with the government, and which items will be bargained “locally” with the school boards before any actual negotiations take place.
Normally, central issues bargained with the government consist of high-cost items such wages, benefits and sick leave.
Preserving local bargaining over staffing matters for educators because teachers and support staff have different needs. Each school board, and corresponding local union, will have issues that are unique to their community.
Take, for example, staff transfers: In a school board area serving Hamilton, Ont., transferring a teacher from one school to another might seem more workable because the distance between the two most outlying schools is arguably not that long of a drive. In a northern school board, or even in the Toronto District School Board serving the greater Toronto area, a transfer could mean relocating your family due to the distance or the commute.
Unions have sent the disputes over what must be negotiated with the province and what must be negotiated with school boards to the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Hearings are concluding, with a decision expected weeks later. The timing will likely coincide with the unions’ strike vote results.
How would a job action proceed?
Unions would need to demonstrate a majority of members voting yes for any job action to proceed.
The parties must first engage in a period of meaningful bargaining and other mandatory labour relations processes before any work-to-rule, strike or lockout can occur.
Unions must provide five days’ written notice before engaging in job action. School boards must provide the same notice before locking out workers.
Gearing up for conflict?
Like earlier governments, the Ford government has proven it will resort to divide-and-conquer strategies.
In 2022, only weeks after education contracts expired, the premier removed CUPE education workers’ right to strike by invoking the notwithstanding clause.
It was not until other unions threatened a general strike that he backed down.
Read more:
Ontario school strike: Government’s use of the notwithstanding clause — again — is an assault on labour relations
It’s clear this time that the government is gearing up for conflict once again. Just before contracts expired, a media report leaked the government’s plan for an ad campaign taking aim at education workers’ use of sick leave.
The complex nature of collective bargaining in the education sector makes this round’s outcome tough to predict.
Education unions — particularly those who represent teachers — tend to favour work-to-rule campaigns and rotating strikes over total walkouts. They are mindful of both public opinion and the threat of back-to-work legislation.
However, CUPE has indicated that this time around, it will escalate quickly to a strike if necessary. Whether the rest of the 255,000 education workers in the province would join them remains to be seen.
What this fight will look like will be determined in the weeks ahead. Clearly, there is much at stake.
Chantal Mancini is a member of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.
Tags: Academic Journalism, The Conversation, The Conversation Academic News
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