It was another day off of school for thousands of students in the Kingston, Ont. area.
Public high school teachers with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) Limestone District 27 staged their latest one-day strike in their ongoing contract battle with the province.
A handful of school boards in Ontario participated in this fourth walkout, including teachers from the Limestone District School Board.
“We’re at the breaking point now,” said Andrea Loken, president of the OSSTF bargaining unit for Limestone District 27.
Secondary school teachers in the Kingston board hit the picket line for the second time in recent weeks.
Their union says the government is not listening to their concerns about proposed cuts to education.
“We need people like parents, members of the public, to write their MPP — to call and say, ‘this needs to stop,'” Loken said.
Wages, class sizes and mandatory e-learning courses are the main sticking points for the union and its 60,000 teachers and education workers.
“Students right now take e-learning on a voluntary basis — that works,” Loken said.
“Forced e-learning will not work.”
James Griffith, who teaches Grade 11 and 12 at Frontenac Secondary School in Kingston, says his students are worried about government cuts affecting courses.
“Especially small, specialized courses. And they understand that this is a real problem.”
In Napanee on Wednesday, about 100 teachers along with support workers held a rally in front of MPP Daryl Kramp’s office.
Kramp was not present for health reasons.
Three high schools are represented within his riding and NDP MPP Ian Arthur was there to lend his support.
“We will absolutely, in the NDP, continue to fight for education workers across Ontario,” says Arthur.
Global News reached MPP Kramp by phone.
“We’ll come to some accommodation that will serve both the interests of the teachers, certainly the taxpayers and most importantly those students,” Kramp said.
In December 2019, a government-appointed mediator called off negotiations between the province and the union, saying the parties remained too far apart.
No further negotiations are scheduled.
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