Happy Holidays from COPE Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario – September 12, 2023: Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) is pleased to jointly announce a local agreement with the Canadian Office & Professional Employees Union (COPE Local 527). COPE Local 527 represents over 1100 HWDSB Educational Assistants, Child and Youth Care Practitioners, Communication Disorders Assistants, Deaf and Blind Intervenors and Language Acquisition Support Staff.
HWDSB’s Board of Trustees approved the local agreement at a Board meeting on September 11, 2023. COPE Local 527 members ratified the agreement on September 11, 2023.
Hamilton, Ontario – September 12, 2023: Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) is pleased to jointly announce a local agreement with the Canadian Office & Professional Employees Union (COPE Local 527). COPE Local 527 represents over 1100 HWDSB Educational Assistants, Child and Youth Care Practitioners, Communication Disorders Assistants, Deaf and Blind Intervenors and Language Acquisition Support Staff.
HWDSB’s Board of Trustees approved the local agreement at a Board meeting on September 11, 2023. COPE Local 527 members ratified the agreement on September 11, 2023.
“COPE 527 members are highly valued for the critical role they play in supporting HWDSB students,” said Dawn Danko, Chair of the Board at HWDSB. “The agreement reached is reflective of the hard work and collaboration from all parties and represents a positive step forward for the entire Board.”
The ratified Collective Agreement covers the period from September 1, 2022, to August 31, 2026.
“Firstly, I would like to thank our negotiating team for their hard work and dedication over the past school year. We could not have gotten to this point without their tireless efforts,” said COPE Local 527 President, Susan Lucek. “I would also like to thank the HWDSB for respectfully and collaboratively working with our team to reach an agreement. The new Collective Agreement is fair, reasonable, and an important first step toward improving the safety of staff and students alike.”
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If you are 35 years of age or younger and a COPE Ontario member and interested to be part of this committee, please contact Siraz Kaur Chatha COPE Ontario VP of Young Workers (see inform below).
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The COPE Ontario Executive Board took time of its meetings in Toronto to honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
THE LONG ROAD TO RECONCILIATION
On this coming Monday, many of us will be wearing orange shirts in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and all that it represents about the tragic history of residential schools.
Residential schools are not a problem of the past, but a profound wrong that lives in the present through the trauma created by an official policy of our governments that was rooted in attempted cultural genocide – a policy to destroy Indigenous cultures and identity forever.
Some of us have the day off, others will be working. Many of us will be attending special events, either through work or in the community.
Wherever we may find ourselves, let us make it a day of reflection in which we remember the thousands of young people who were torn away from their families and communities, and acknowledge how far we have yet to go on the long road to reconciliation.