The union that represents roughly 55,000 educators in Ontario has given five days’ notice of a potential strike that could affect the entire province.

If it can’t come to an agreement with the Ontario government, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents workers like educational assistants, custodians, and early childhood educators, says a strike may begin as early as Friday.

The union has not stated whether education workers will launch a work-to-rule campaign, go on a full or partial strike, or take any other action at that time.

The union and the government are slated to continue negotiations on Tuesday after mediation talks last week failed due to the wide gap on wages between the parties.

In response to CUPE’s demand for yearly pay hikes of 11.7%, the government has proposed increments of 2% for those making less than $40,000 and 1.25% for everyone else.

If education employees go on a full strike, two Ontario school boards have threatened to shut down their schools.

The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board stated last week that they would be unable to provide a secure environment for employees and children in the event that CUPE “fully withdraws service.”