THUNDER BAY – With sports season about to culminate next week with several OFSAA championships, and March Break trips rapidly appearing over the horizon, the union representing high school teachers and education workers is pausing its rotating series of strikes.
Rich Seeley, who heads the District 6A bargaining unit of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, on Friday said the decision was made to ensure the student experience wasn’t impacted by their ongoing dispute with the province.
“The week before and the week after March Break there are usually a lot of significant provincial sporting events that are wrapping up and there are also across the province a lot of high school overseas trips that will be commencing,” Seeley said.
“They will often leave the week before March Break and some of them return the week after. We’ve been saying all along we don’t want to have a negative impact on student experience.”
Seeley noted many of these trips have been planned years in advance and students and their families have spent thousands of dollars.
“We did not want to jeopardize those trips and that’s why we made the decision to suspend these strikes for two weeks,” Seeley said.
The union is ramping up other job-related actions, starting on Monday.
In addition to services already being withheld, OSSTF members will cut back on meetings and won’t attend or deliver training seminars, attend board committee meetings, take part in school improvement plans, participate in any curriculum or course learning, accept administrative positions or assist with admin duties, file EQAO results, keep employer owned devices on beyond the end of the work day unless they’re paid overtime or be available for emergency call-ins without pay.
Seeley said it’s a good chance for both sides to look things over and get back to the bargaining table.
“Hopefully the government will see that the lies they’ve been spewing out there are not catching on with the public and it’s time to take the last cuts off the table,” he said.
“We’re pleased that they’ve made some progress and they’re coming closer to meeting our demands. But our buttons and our signs don’t say some cuts to education. They say no cuts to education.”
Earlier this week, at a news conference, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce offered to reduce proposed classroom sizes from 28:1 to 23:1, one more than the union wants. They also promised to offer an opt-out of mandatory e-learning, but Seeley said he’s concerned the process would be too onerous for many students and their families.
Lecce on Thursday issued a statement, with two teachers’ unions walking the picket-line across the province.
"I have offered all teachers' union federations a fair and reasonable plan, which should pave the way to reaching a good deal that keeps students in class,” Lecce said.
“The government has consistently made reasonable moves - effectively freezing class room sizes, a parental opt out for online learning, a commitment to full-day kindergarten, and one hundred per cent investment in special education. The time for a deal is now, I urge the unions to stop this disruptive escalation and return to the table to get a deal that is fair for parents, students, and educators."
If no deal is reached by March 27, the OSSTF will return to rotating strikes across Ontario.
