THUNDER BAY -- The local president of a teacher’s union says she’s disappointed the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled a walkouts illegal.
The OLRB made the decision at 4 a.m. Friday that if elementary teachers went ahead with their planned strike action it would be considered illegal. Instead, teachers in the city held protests during their lunch hour outside of MPPs Michael Gravelle and Bill Mauro’s offices.
Although teachers were in school, students weren’t. The Lakehead Public School board announced earlier that they would be closing elementary schools for the day.
Schools that have daycare services remained opened.
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario local president Ellen Chambers received the call about the ruling early in the morning. Although the province imposed a two-year contract agreement with teachers, Chambers believes they haven’t yet been backed into a corner.
“We’re still quite angry,” Chambers said. “I think it is very interesting that education minister Laurel Broten invoke Bill 115 to complete override the OLRB and impose contracts but then went to them to see if they could stop what we feel was a legal position.
"The message is quite clear that Ontarians aren’t pleased with the Liberal leadership.”
Chambers said when teachers returned from their holiday break they were asked if they would reconsider volunteering again for extracurricular activities but a decision has yet to be made.
Although political protests such as walkouts were ruled illegal, Chambers said protests
will continue during lunch breaks and after working hours.
Chambers added that there will be a huge political protest during the Ontario Liberal leadership vote on Jan. 26.
Director of education Cathi Siemieniuk said they felt that they couldn’t ensure the safety of students so they decided to close the schools. The board had wanted to wait until the OLRB hearing had concluded before going ahead with reopening the schools.
Siemieniuk said they also wanted to know if the Elementary Teachers Federation Ontario would have followed the ruling.
“Out of respect for our parents we believed that the best decision we could make was our original one,” Siemieniuk said.
“It’s been a late night and a very early morning. Each time we have situations happen we do a review of our own practices to see if there are some changes we can make.”
Some schools across the province remained open following the ruling. Siemieniuk said they had already canceled bus services for the day as well as told the crossing guards not to come in.
High school teachers had announced that they would be walking off the job next Wednesday, but since the ruling have called it off. Siemieniuk added high schools will be open that day.
