WATCH ABOVE: A tentative deal between public high school teachers and the province of Ontario has parents hoping and the premier beaming. Cindy Pom reports.
TORONTO – The union representing Ontario public high school teachers have reached a tentative contract agreement with the province following a lengthy labour dispute.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation announced the agreement in a media release early Thursday morning, however no details of the deal were released.
READ MORE: Elementary teachers’ union and province to return to bargaining table Sept. 1
“The tentative agreement must be endorsed by OSSTF/FEESO local leaders before it is presented to all members for ratification,” the statement read.
A meeting of local leaders is expected to take place later this week.
OSSTF President Paul Elliot told the crowd at the union’s leadership conference in Ottawa on Thursday that they were able to move the management team from their “radical agenda” despite the “frustrating” negotiations.
Education Minister Liz Sandals said in a statement following the announcement that the negotiations were “challenging” but “collaboration prevailed.”
“We continue to negotiate with all other teachers’ and education workers’ unions at the central table and are committed to bargaining throughout the remaining weeks of the summer in order to reach agreements at all tables,” she said.
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The Liberal government, fighting a deficit of $11.9 billion, has said there is no money for salary hikes for teachers or anyone else in the public sector, but the unions say workload, preparation time and class size are other hot button issues.
Premier Kathleen Wynne echoed Sandals’ remarks by praising the work done by negotiators on all sides of the table.
“It’s a very significant and happy day to get kids back to school. I know our teachers want to be in school,” Wynne told reporters following a funding announcement in Newmarket Thursday morning.
“I know that the people who have been very worried about whether their kids are going to be in school will be very pleased. Every party had objectives they wanted to achieve at the table.”
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The OSSTF represents 60,000 members across Ontario including public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors.
Meanwhile, the union representing 76,000 public elementary school teachers says it will head back to the bargaining table with the province on Sept. 1.
In May the union began a work-to-rule campaign and have cited wages, class size, hiring practices and teacher preparation time as major points of contention in the negotiations.
With a file from The Canadian Press
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