Education Minister Stephen Lecce says there is a “credible pathway” to a deal with the union representing 55,000 school support staff — but says CUPE needs to be “reasonable” at the bargaining table.“We aren’t all horribly far apart on a lot of issues — in fact, on some of the major issues we’ve been able to seek alignment,” Lecce told the Star in a phone interview Friday morning, just hours before bargaining talks were set to resume with the Canadian Union of Public Employees in an attempt to avoid a strike Monday morning that will shut down hundreds of schools across the province. There are a “a few issues that will be negotiated at the table over the weekend, but I do believe for families and for students themselves that there’s a pathway to resolve this, and it really rests with, I think largely, the union being reasonable.”Lecce said “the government has demonstrated reasonability, flexibility” that puts students first, he said. He said he is “cautiously optimistic” of getting a deal, “however I always emphasize that it does take two to tango.”With talks resuming for the weekend, “that is a good step in trying to find a pathway that mitigates from this disruption that the union has imposed on so many families in the province by escalating this.”Caretakers, school office staff, educational assistants and early childhood educators began a work-to-rule on Monday and on Wednesday CUPE gave the required five days’ notice for a full-out strike. Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, has said “any job action we take will have at its heart the protection of education services for students” and has blamed the Doug Ford government’s cutbacks for the labour strife. Hundreds of CUPE members across the province have been laid off, or seen their hours cut, as boards balanced their bud ...
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