Upper Grand school board preparing for possible strike action

The Upper Grand District School Board says it will do its best to keep its schools open.

This comes after the union representing 55,000 education workers issued a five-day strike notice on Wednesday.

Representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) held a news conference that morning saying talks with the province on a new collective agreement have reached an impasse.

In a news release, the UGDSB says it is monitoring the situation closely and continuing with its contingency plans.

It says it will do whatever it can to keep students learning in person but it will be very challenging without the services of its valued CUPE employees.

Upper Grand employs 242 CUPE workers: 224 custodians and 18 ESL instructors.

The school board kept its schools open during a staged walkout on Nov. 4, which lasted two school days.

However, the board also indicated that classes would shift to remote learning if workers continued with their job action.

The Ford government passed legislation that imposed a contract and banned education workers from striking, which was later rescinded in exchange for both sides returning to the bargaining table.

— with files from Global News and The Canadian Press