Thousands of education workers in Ontario are in a position to begin a legal strike within weeks as talks with the Ford government have reached a deadlock. On Monday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 55,000 education workers in the province, took a new leap towards job action. The union, which represents education workers such as administrative staff, librarians, early childhood educators, and custodians, sat on one side of the bargaining table while the Ministry of Education sat on the other side, with the main point of disagreement between CUPE and the government being salary. The union is seeking an 11.7 percent annual salary increase for its members, stating that years of wage freezes and caps have left its members' salaries lagging behind. In response, the government offered a 2 percent annual wage increase for workers earning less than $40,000, and a 1.25 percent increase for all other workers. In the same vein, in a statement issued on Monday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he hopes that “CUPE will put forward reasonable requests focused on keeping students in the classroom, not demands for nearly a 50 percent increase in compensation.” He added: "Like parents, we strongly believe that students deserve to be in the classroom to make up for what they have learned, and we are disappointed when we hear the education union telling parents of their intent to impose a strike on children and their families.” Also, education workers in Ontario are pushing for temporary and casual staff wages to match those of permanent staff, and they also want to see the overtime pay rate doubled with the elimination of wage grids. Apart from wages, they also want to allocate 30 minutes of preparation time daily for educational assistants and early childhood educators (ECEs), in addition to an extra week of paid work before the school year begins and an increase in benefits. Likewise, as of November 3, both CUPE and the ministry will be in a legal strike position. This follows the issuance of a “no board report” on October 7 when talks with the government reached a deadlock. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) told CTV News Toronto that they are not in a position to speculate on how the strike would impact in-person learning. TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said: "We still hope that all parties can reach a collective agreement that avoids any impacts on classrooms." However, some classrooms, such as senior and junior kindergarten, usually include early childhood education (ECE), which falls within the group of education workers scheduled to strike. The “no board report” was issued on Monday, starting a 17-day countdown after which the union will be in a legal strike position and the ministry in a legal lockout. The union still must provide five days' notice before taking any job action. However, there are still three days of bargaining on the agenda between Monday and Wednesday. During the last round of contract negotiations in 2019, CUPE and the government reached a last-minute deal the day before workers were set to strike.