Mike Judge said other than the classroom, there’s no place elementary school teachers in Ontario would rather be than at the bargaining table.
But the provincial government is making it difficult, said Judge, the local president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, after union leadership on Monday rejected a the province’s “cookie-cutter” approach to reaching labour deals with all of Ontario’s teachers.
As a result teachers have threatened to escalate their strike action if a new contact can’t be reached and both the province and the Ontario Public School Boards Association doesn’t start negotiating with a clear resolve to get an acceptable contract done that fits the needs of elementary school teachers.
But Judge said that doesn’t mean a work-to-rule approach.
“We’re not simply going to have knee-jerk reactions when the government wants to walk away from the table,” he said, reached by phone in Toronto, where he joined union officials for a news conference.
“If there has to be an escalation because the government refuses to return to the table and refuses to speak with us, that may come down the road at some point, but we’re certainly doing our very best to make sure that schools are up and running and teachers are in the classrooms ready to receive students and offer them quality instruction.”"
The province made an offer on Friday, but then left the bargaining session.
Judge said Education Minister Liz Sandals’ move is frustrating for everyone involved.
“We still want to be at the table. We’re asking for dates and waiting for the government to respond,” Judge said.
“I’m not sure the government is willing to provide any justification for their tactics at this point, but we’re all kind of left wondering.”
Sandals, who presented an offer to teachers last Friday before walking away from the bargaining session, said the ball is in ETFO president Sam Hammond’s court.
“We need to hear from Mr. Hammond what he does accept and what he doesn’t accept,” she told the Toronto Sun. “I think the onus is really on him why what was acceptable to other teachers — both secondary and elementary — why that isn’t acceptable for his members.”
Judge said the deal offered to high school teachers and Catholic board teachers earlier this year was not a one-size-fits-all solution for teachers across the province.
It’s a bit of stretch to think so, he added.
First of all, the first two deals had plenty of differences.
And it’s too soon for that anyway, Judge said.
“At this point, ETFO is still in the middle of negotiating items of working conditions. They haven’t even gotten to the full scope of a contract. So they’re still in the middle stages of this process when the government simply picked up and walked out,” Judge said.
“And the mediator completely agrees with that, that it’s the government that’s walked away from the table. There was no common-thread contract that was put on the table.”
Judge was adamant the union would not buckle in its resolve.
“I can tell you at this point that ETFO is not going to agree to concessions that would gut contracts or set us back decades in terms of things that were fairly bargained over the years,” he said. “This is not at all about money at any point. Money hasn’t even been tabled yet.”
Instead this is about the OPSBA trying to gain further claw-backs into teacher working conditions, he said.
“That’s something that resonates with teachers and it resonates with any working Canadian and we’re not going to tolerate it.”
