A women covers her face as she walks past a child care centre that's closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on April 10, 2020.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
A union representing Ontario education workers says thousands of its members will be without child care when they return to work on Monday.
Elementary school classes will run remotely from Jan. 4 to Jan. 8 as part of a provincewide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19.
But the Canadian Union of Public Employees says many of its 20,000 members set to work in schools next week are parents who have no child-care options available to them.
CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions is calling on the provincial government to include education staff in the emergency child-care provision for essential workers.
Union president Laura Walton says excluding the workers is dangerous and puts them in an impossible position.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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