THUNDER BAY – After months of stop-and-start contract negotiations and labour actions, Catholic teachers hope a tentative deal reached with the Ontario government will mean a return to normalcy in local schools.
Of course, normalcy may have to wait, with efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 closing publicly-funded Ontario schools until at least April 6.
Amid that uncertainty, the province and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) managed to come to a tentative agreement Thursday after five straight days of talks. OECTA, which represents around 45,000 elementary and secondary teachers, is the first of Ontario’s major teachers’ unions to reach a tentative deal.
Carlo Cappello, president of OECTA’s secondary unit in Thunder Bay, is hopeful the proposed agreement can deliver what everyone wants – an end to the uncertainty that included four days of local strike action.
“What we’re hoping for is that this deal will be a solution to the issues of the strike, it’ll be a calming point for our members, for parents, for students,” he said.
Cappello says it will take several weeks for the tentative deal to work its way through the union’s review process, expected to culminate in a vote by OECTA members on April 7 and 8.
Cappello could not comment on any details of the deal. The government has publicly offered concessions on two issues unions had identified as sticking points: adding an opt-out option for e-learning, and increasing average secondary class sizes - currently mandated at 22 students - to 23, rather than their original target of 28.
Meanwhile, Cappello praised the province’s decision to close schools for two weeks following March Break next week.
“I’m happy to see the government has taken these necessary steps to stave off any spread of the disease,” he said. “It’s definitely an unprecedented move, but we’re happy to see these safety measures have been put in place.”
