Lakehead Public School elementary teachers have walked off the job for 24 hours in protest to the Ontario government’s controversial Bill 115.
Members of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario picketed Wednesday outside of a number of Thunder Bay schools, as well as the James Street government building.
Parents were given 72 hours notice about the one-day strike, learning on Sunday that teachers would not be in classrooms and instead protest a government bill they believe takes away their bargaining rights.
Elementary teachers also plan to impose work-to-rule sanctions on Monday, including withdrawing their services from extracurricular activities.
Lakehead Elementary Teachers president Ellen Chambers said their issue is not with the school board but with the provincial government.
“I know it is an inconvenience for parents, we’re very well aware of that,” Chambers said. “The ETFO is all about education so we’ve done a big job to educate our members and the public why we’re here. We’re not here because we want to be, we’re here because the provincial government flatly refused to negotiate.”
In preparation of the chilly weather, falling near -20 C, unions members bundled up and marched along the sidewalks. Chambers said they have hot chocolate ready to keep members warm and plenty of treats for the day.
Regardless of where the mercury stands, Chambers said teachers will be out in full force.
“We’re absolutely disgusted with the Liberal government and their legislation,” she said. “There was absolutely no need for that. We contemplated striking only at the MPPs offices and mini Queen’s Park but we thought maybe there were a bit too many people here. Our fight is not at all with the school board but since the Ministry of Education looks after all the schools, we’re striking at a number of schools.”
She added that strike will go until 2:30 p.m.
Renee Kaizer dropped off her daughter, a Grade 9 student, at Churchill while protesters marched on the nearby sidewalk. Although the strike was only a few feet away, Kaizer didn’t make any special plans in case there was a disruption.
She said the strike is unfortunate because it affects the school, but at the same time the government can’t take away their collective bargaining rights.
“You can’t take that away from people,” Kaizer said. “I was hearing from a lot of students that they were kind of discouraged and not too happy with extracurricular activities being suspended. My daughter gets help between classes and that’s been taken away from her for now. I hope everything ends soon so it doesn’t affect her as much.”
Lakehead Public Schools director of education Cathi Siemieniuk said Wednesday morning the protest has been peaceful and no one had yet reported any problems. She said parents have called asking for clarification about the school closures.
“ETFO has made it clear right from the very beginning that their concern is with Bill 115, which was passed by the government not local school boards,” she said. “All schools will be open tomorrow. It is a one-day protest staged by ETFO. It’s part of rotating strikes for one day across the province.”
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay – Atikokan) returned to the city from Toronto in order to meet with the protesters that were outside his office. He admitted that Bill 115 wasn’t his government’s best piece of legislation but added they have seen other bargaining units agree to collective bargaining some time ago so negotiating is still possible.
“From my perspective, the outcome was predictable especially with the Dec. 31 deadline,” Mauro said. “What is occurring is not a surprise to me. The bill still allows for collective bargaining, the bill still allows for strikes and that is indicative of the job action that’s been taken today.”
He said he believes there’s still plenty of good will towards the Liberal government because so much support has gone into Education.
