TORONTO – Ontario’s English Catholic teachers are heading back to the bargaining table, but are also planning more strikes if they can’t reach a deal.
All four major teachers’ unions have been staging strikes as contract talks with the province have made little progress, and the teachers are all planning a joint, provincewide strike on Friday.
Negotiations between the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and the government broke down in January, and since then the two sides have only had one day of discussions. A mediator has now called the parties back to the table for Wednesday.
But OECTA president Liz Stuart said if no deal is reached, they will stage rotating strikes next week that target each board one day.
“We are ready to get back to the table, but the government needs to recognize that these discussions must be about protecting our world-renowned publicly funded education system,” Stuart said.
“Catholic teachers have done our part to move these negotiations forward, but we cannot accept the government’s agenda to take resources out of the classroom.”
OECTA and other teachers’ unions are upset about the government increasing class sizes and instituting mandatory e-learning requirements for graduation.
Premier Doug Ford noted Tuesday that the government has partly backed off on both issues – offering an increase in average high school class sizes from 22 to 25, instead of 28, and requiring two online learning courses instead of the four in his original plan.
“We’ve been reasonable,” Ford said in the legislature. “We’ve made significant moves (at) the table and priority No. 1 again is to make sure that kids get back into the classroom.”
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he is pleased the mediator has called the government and Catholic teachers back to the bargaining table, and the province is ready to negotiate a deal.
Public schools across Ontario will be closed this Friday, Feb. 21 as elementary, secondary, Catholic and French teachers have banded together to announce a joint strike in a bid to ramp up pressure on the government.
Bargaining is at a near-standstill with most of the unions.
All of them are asking for around two per cent in annual salary increases, while the government won’t budge beyond offering one per cent. It passed legislation last year capping wage hikes for all public sector workers at one per cent for three years. The teachers’ unions and several others are fighting the law in court, arguing it infringes on collective bargaining rights.