THUNDER BAY – Paul Caccamo says teachers and education workers felt they had no choice but to stage a one-day walkout.
Caccamo, vice-president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the strike absolutely didn’t have to happen, but the province hasn’t been sincere in its negotiating tactics and his union members won’t stand idly by while Premier Doug Ford proposes massive cuts to education, larger class sizes and mandatory e-learning courses.
The province has dialed back the latter two plans, announcing they’ll cap class sizes at 25, not 28, and cutting the number of required online courses from four, their first proposal, to two.
That’s not good enough, Caccamo said, making a whirlwind tour of local public board high schools on Wednesday morning before flying back to Toronto to await a new round of talks.
“The cuts are significant, they’re already manifesting themselves with significant losses in revenue in both of our local school boards,” Caccamo said.
“Staff is not being replaced. Class sizes are growing and there are less supports available in our schools for our education workers for the most vulnerable students. That’s unacceptable to our members and that’s why they’re out here.”
Caccamo said the goal is to convince the province to get back to bargaining, cautioning if they don’t, the union may have no choice but to ramp up strike-related action, including future walk-outs and the possible withdrawal of services.
He added that while Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who has called for mediation to end the dispute, is telling the public the Conservative government has made massive investments into education in Ontario, that’s simply not the case.
“It is categorically untrue. They are extracting hundreds of millions of dollars out of the public education system. There is less staff available in our schools and if escalation is going to happen, it is going to because this minister and his boss, (Premier Doug) Ford, refuse to acknowledge that public education is sacrosanct in this province, it needs to be celebrated as among the best education systems in the world.”
Caccamo is holding out hope negotiations will resume soon.
“OSSTF remains ready and willing to engage with this government, but engaging for us does not mean we are going to move off our very reasonable baseline position, that public education should be funded at the level that it was last year,” he said. “And it is not being funded at the level it was last year.
“So if the minister wants to acknowledge that extracting money out of education, to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy is a pathway this government feels is warranted, we are going to continue to take job action and fight back.
Rich Seeley, president of OSSTF District 6A Thunder Bay, said teachers and education workers are standing strong in their demands.
“We’re all in this together and the fact that our elementary schools are closed tells us how important our support staff are to the operation of a school,” Seeley said, standing outside Hammarskjold High School.
“Stephen Lecce said he wanted a deal, but he never even came to the hotel to sit down with us to talk about a deal at the last minute. So we’re out here for that reason. It’s absolutely frustrating, when he’s going into meetings saying they’re putting offers on table and there are no offers are coming. We don’t know what they’re doing because I don’t think they know what they’re doing.”
Union members are also fighting for pay increases tied to inflation.
Thunder Bay Catholic District School board shuttered its schools for the day because many of its support workers belong to the OSSTF and were on the picket line too.
All locals schools are expected to be reopened on Thursday.
