Support staff at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board have voted in favour of strike action.
The 370 workers represented by Unifor would be in a legal strike position as of 12:01am Monday, October 17.
Unifor Local 2458 represents two bargaining units of office, clerical workers and technicians along with custodians and maintenance staff.
The office, clerical and technical unit voted 92% in favour of strike action while the maintenance staff backed strike action by a vote of 100%
Local President Bruce Dickie says it's been a struggle to even get dates for talks, and the board has revised the sick day policy without explaining it. "Even at the table we can't get a copy of what they're proposing to give us, just their whole list of changes to the collective agreement," says Dickie
"Trying to bargain for the last couple of years, extremely difficult ot even get dates to bargain, and they came to the table with all kinds of take-aways, almost every article of the contract they want to ammend or delete," he adds.
Dickie says "Bill 115, imposed by the province 4 years ago stripped away benefits from the workers and froze wages." A judge has ruled the legislation was unconstitutional, but left it up to the parties to come up with a solution.
Both bargaining units have been without a contract since August 31, 2014.
The union says negotiations are at an impasse.
Meanwhile, Catholic School Board Spokesperson Stephen Fields says the board wants to reassure parents that schools will be open on Monday.
He says there is a contingency plan in place to keep schools open as long as possible.
"The WECDSB has been continually available for negotiations and throughout the process has made reasonable proposals which would provide fair compensation and strong job security language for the union's members," says Fields. "We are committed to the responsible management of our resources and to arriving at an agreement that doesn't jeopardize the quality educational programming that we provide for our students."
-with files from Peter Langille and Teresinha Medieros