File Photo: A teacher walks the divided hallways at Hunter's Glen Junior Public School, part of the Toronto District School Board, in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, September 14, 2020. (Nathan Denette/Pool via REUTERS)
OTTAWA: Canada's most populous province on Monday offered to rescind a controversial law that imposes a contract on education workers and outlaws strikes if their union agreed to end a standoff that has shut schools in Ontario.
Some 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) went on strike on Friday after failing to reach an agreement with the provincial government for better pay and more frontline staff in schools.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government has rejected the striking CUPE workers' wage demands as too high, and passed a law to force a contract on them and make strikes an offence that carries a daily C$4,000 fine for each worker.
"Our government is willing to rescind the legislation ... but only if CUPE agrees to show a similar gesture of good faith by stopping their strike and letting our kids back into their classrooms," Ford said at a news conference on Monday.
"We're willing to make a fair deal," Ford said.
The legislation has been widely criticized for its use of the so-called notwithstanding clause, which allows a provincial government to override some aspects of Canada's Charter of Rights.
Ford says the legislation was necessary to keep classrooms open after two years of disruptions to in-person schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The walkout continued on Monday.
"Pressure works. Let's keep going," CUPE said on Twitter, before a scheduled news conference by union leaders.
