The strike began March 31 after the Board claimed it did not have funds to meet the workers' demands. The school support workers explain that they have not received a pay raise in over eight years. They are demanding an 8 percent raise, comparable to what teachers received in Toronto last year.

The Ontario Conservative Government, headed by Premier Mike Harris, has cut millions of dollars from the provincial education budget over the last six years. Janine Bielskis, a day-care worker in an elementary school, explained to the Militant her anger with the Board's position: "Instead of the board fighting for more funding, they're fighting their own workers."

Support workers have organized daily mass pickets at about a dozen high schools each day, effectively shutting them down. All schools have been affected, as many parents kept their children out of school. Many high school students have also stayed away in support for the strike. One explained to the Militant that she intended to go to school the first Monday of the strike, but "I didn't go in. I just hung out with the janitors and everybody outside the school."

Negotiations resumed Easter weekend, when Local 4400 dropped some of its demands for increased job security, and the provincial government indicated that they were not going to exercise their powers under the law and order strikers back to work.

Annette Kouri is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers at Quality Meats in Toronto.
 
 
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