WATCH ABOVE: Are strikes legal? Is school year in jeopardy? Key decisions coming shortly. Alan Carter has more.
TORONTO – Ontario high school teachers and the province return to the bargaining table this week as school boards try to end three local strikes by having them declared illegal.
This is the first round of negotiations under a new bargaining system the Liberal government introduced last year, separating the process into local and central talks.
The central talks between the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the province have been stalled for weeks, but they will resume Wednesday with a new mediator.
More than 70,000 high school students have been kept from class for weeks as teachers in the Toronto-area regions of Peel and Durham and the Sudbury-area Rainbow District are on strike.
The three boards have asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to declare the strikes illegal, arguing they are really over central issues such as class sizes and not matters being handled at the local tables.
That hearing is into its third day today, while the Minister of Education has also asked a separate arm of the labour board to consider whether the students’ school years are in jeopardy.
A timeline of teacher labour strife in Ontario schools during the current round of bargaining:
April 9, 2014: School Boards Collective Bargaining Act becomes law, separating negotiations into local and central talks.
Aug. 31, 2014: Contracts expire for teachers across Ontario.
April 17, 2015: Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation says their central talks with the province and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association are at an impasse.
April 20: Central talks with OSSTF resume.
April 20: High school teachers in Durham District School Board go on strike.
April 24: Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association members vote 94 per cent for a strike mandate.
April 27: High school teachers in Rainbow District School Board go on strike.
May 4: High school teachers in Peel District School Board go on strike.
May 4: OSSTF says central talks are again at an impasse.
May 11: Elementary teachers begin a work-to-rule administrative strike.
May 12: Durham, Rainbow and Peel boards ask the Ontario Labour Relations Board to declare the strikes illegal, saying they are really over central, not local, issues.
May 14: Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing begins.
May 15: Minister of Education Liz Sandals asks the Education Relations Commission for advice on whether Durham, Rainbow, Peel students’ school years are in jeopardy.
May 20: Central talks are set to resume with OSSTF.
May 21: High school teachers in Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Halton District School Board are to begin an administrative strike.
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