CBC, Gazette: Two Ontario unions avoid strike with last minute agreements

Ontario narrowly avoided seeing two education strikes kick off simultanously as the CBC reports a late night agreement between the government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) prevented a strike by 55,000 education workers and an agreement between Western University and the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA-LA) announced an agreement that prevented librarians an archivists from walking out according to the Gazette, Western University's student paper.

Both contracts still need to be ratified by union members, but the agreements represent an ability to continue services to students at all levels uninterrupted. UWOFA-LA is not releasing details of the contract until its members have a chance to vote, but CUPE has stated that they won modest wage increases and a continuation of the current sick leave plan. The main victory CUPE claimed, however, was a commitment of an investment estimated to be worth $20million(Canadian) into the province's schools, stating that this was a victory for students and parents as much as anyone.