Poll watch: Make education essential

Also: Jeremy Roberts' 'consolation prize,' CUPE lays low, Di Tommaso's testimony, ERs in worse shape

ABOVE THE FOLD

POLL WATCH — Amid rocky negotiations with school workers, fresh polling data suggests most Ontarians want the PCs to make education an essential service — effectively wiping out their ability to strike.

Per Maru Public Opinion, 59 per cent of respondents believe education should be an essential service. That would also settle any labour disputes via binding arbitration. Forty-one per cent disagreed.

The endgame: A slight majority — 53 per cent — say the government and CUPE’s education workers should stay at the table and come to a deal on their own, while 47 per cent want an arbitrator to impose a settlement on both parties.

As first scooped in this newsletter, the Ford government has flirted with the notion of making education workers essential. Instead of doing that, they wielded the notwithstanding clause to impose a contract on CUPE’s workers via Bill 28, but was forced to backtrack after unions fought back in solidarity, threatening a general strike.

Making teachers…