For the second time in the past number of weeks, talks between the province and public high school teachers have hit a roadblock.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation released a statement Saturday night, declaring talks between the government and the Ontario Public School Board Association had reached an impasse.
In the statement, OSSTF president Paul Elliott accused the other two sides of attacking the current contract.
"We want nothing more than to reach a negotiated settlement, but we simply can't agree to terms that undermine our members' working conditions, and can only lead to inferior learning conditions for our students," Elliott is quoted in the statement.
The statement also said the union intends to file for conciliation against the central table.
This is the first round of contract negotiations since Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government introduced new legislation to create two separate negotiating tables, local and central, which each have defined issues to address.
More than 70,000 students at the Durham, Peel and Sudbury-area Rainbow school districts are out of the classroom as a result of local teachers strikes. Those are three of seven boards in which the union previously filed notice for conciliation.
The Lakehead District School Board in Thunder Bay is another one of the seven, where teachers are in a legal strike posiition and are obligated to give five days' notice before they could walk off the jobs.
Local negotiations have been ongoing.
