Tentative contract deal reached between province, public high school teachers

Despite reaching a deal, OSSTF president Paul Elliott accused the government and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association of undermining teachers, trying to gut collective agreements and degrade education in Ontario.

However, unions representing nurses, police, firefighters, municipal employees and hospital workers in many Ontario communities have reached contracts this year with pay hikes or been awarded salary increases by arbitrators.

“When you look at the number of children in classrooms, there is a lack of human resources such as educational assistants, there’s no funding for that, there’s a lack of time for training on assistive technology in working with children with special needs, it’s impossible in the current climate for one teacher to meet all of those needs in one room”, Holley said.

He made no mention of wages or benefits in his address.

Members of OECTA, which represents 50,000 teachers, have been without a contract for more than a year.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne took the reins of the province’s Liberal Party in 2013 after a protracted dispute between teachers and the government of her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.

OECTA began work to rule measures in Moosonee Thursday, and ETFO plans to ramp up its own work to rule measures if an agreement is not reached with the province before classes begin in September.

“The trustees at some of the boards were never very happy about having to implement that”, said Hawkins.

“What we said could happen at the table has happened”, she said. “I’ve said all along this is a difficult negotiation. It is my No. 1 priority as we go into the fall”. ETFO’s teacher and occasional teacher members will remain in schools to carry out their instructional duties with students and provide voluntary extra-curricular activities. “They are about increasing management rights and a desire for control”, said ETFO President Sam Hammond in a statement.

Hammond repeated a warning he issued earlier in the week that the Ontario government and school boards are “in for the fight of their lives” if they push proposals that might “undermine” public education or increase class sizes.

The unions have warned of co-ordinated job actions if there are not any new agreements when courses resume, however none is threatening a full-scale strike at this level.