Catholic board, elementary teachers’ union at a standstill

Press Release

Thunder Bay - Negotiations for a local collective agreement between the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board and its elementary school teachers resumed Monday with the assistance of a Ministry of Labour appointed Conciliation Officer. Unfortunately, despite the assistance of the Conciliation Officer the Board and the Elementary Teachers were unable to come to an agreement.

At the conclusion of the Conciliator-assisted talks on Monday evening, the Thunder Bay Catholic Elementary teachers requested a "No Board" report, which indicates that the parties were unable to reach an agreement. If the representatives of the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board and the representatives of the Catholic Elementary Teachers do not reconvene and reach a settlement, job action may be taken by the teachers before the end of this school year, and as early as June 21, 2016.

“We are facing many of the same employer bargaining positions in our negotiations that our elementary counterparts have faced in other parts of the province,” says Aldo Grillo,

President of the Thunder Bay Elementary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA). “Unfortunately, our school board has yet to find a way to deal with those issues and we are disappointed that the board does not seem to recognize, and place the same value on teacher loyalty and commitment to this school board.”

“Sixty-five out of 75 local OECTA units have been able to reach local agreements this school year,” adds Grillo.

A locally negotiated agreement is the second part of the teachers’ collective agreement. It accompanies the provincially negotiated 2014–2017 central agreement, ratified by the OECTA, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, and the Government of Ontario in September of 2015.

The Thunder Bay Elementary Unit of OECTA represents approximately 390 members in 18 Catholic elementary schools in the City of Thunder Bay.