Teachers with Upper Canada District School Board hit the picket lines

Elementary teachers with the Upper Canada District School Board spent their day on a picket line Wednesday.

Upper Canada was one of a handful of boards affected by the latest one-day strike. On Thursday, the walkout will escalate to a province-wide strike at all public elementary schools.

Global News visited a picket line in Gananoque, Ont., one of 11 locations across the region of the Upper Canada board where strike action took place. Karen Campbell, the first vice-president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, was present.

“I was at the bargaining table, we were hoping that we’d have a deal,” Campbell said.

“We were very close; we agreed on many items. However, this government brought forth a proposal around some key issues that EFTO could not accept, that our membership would not accept.”

1:56 Community members band together to offer strike camps in Malton

According to Campbell, that’s why the rotating strikes continue.

“This government says they want to invest in resources and supports for students with special needs,” she said. “That’s not what’s being shown at the bargaining table.

“They’re showing something very different for us. This government, when we talk about issues of violence in the classroom, are not addressing those concerns.”

As for Campbell’s appearance in this part of the province, the local union says that goes a long way. Erin Blair is president of the Upper Canada Union.

“It does, indeed. It does a lot,” said Erin Blair, president of the Upper Canada local of the ETFO. “And it helps our local people see that they’re not forgotten.

“We’re the most eastern part of the province, but we’re as important as any other art of the province to the executive and EFTO provincial.”

Blair says teachers would much prefer to be in their classroom working with their students.

“But unfortunately we’ve gotten to this point,” Blair said, “and they’re doing what they have to do to try to make sure that we have got a solid educational system and that kids are supported the way they need to be supported.”

2:38 Parents reaction to the start of rotating Ontario elementary teachers’ job action

Picketers in Gananoque were some of the roughly 1,150 in the Upper Canada board that were walking the line. On Thursday, the entire province joins in.