Heather Latter
Local secondary teachers made their presence known Tuesday evening when 52 attended the opening portion of the Rainy River District School Board’s regular meeting at the board office here.
“This has to do with contract and negotiations, which are going nowhere at the moment,” Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation’s local president Kent Kowalski noted yesterday.
“We are very frustrated with the board’s unwillingness to address the issues that have been raised in the last numbers of rounds of bargaining,” he added.
The secondary teachers have been without a collective agreement since the last one expired Aug. 31, 2014.
Under the School Board Collective Bargaining Act, there is a two-tier bargaining process, which means issues such as salary, benefits, and paid leaves are negotiated on a province-wide basis at a central table.
All other issues then are negotiated locally.
The provincial government, OSSTF, and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association announced a ratified central agreement back on Sept. 18.
But while the board and OSSTF District 5B–Rainy River Teachers’ Bargaining Unit met over the course of several months, they have been unable to reach a local agreement.
Board chair Dianne McCormack said they received no word that the teachers would be on hand for Tuesday’s meeting.
“I’m assuming it’s to do with the fact that the board is still negotiating with them on their agreement,” she noted yesterday morning.
“We received absolutely no information from OSSTF.”
Kowalski noted about 90 percent of secondary teachers across the province have settled.
“So we’re in a minority,” he remarked.
“We’re just looking a fair deal. We’re not making any sort of outlandish demands,” Kowalski said.
“Because so many of the other deals have come in, we’re just on par with what has already been settled.
“We’re not prepared to deal with any erosion to our current collection agreement,” he stressed.
The two sides haven’t met since the first week of December.
Due to the stall in the negotiation process, Kowalski said more than half of the teachers attended Tuesday’s board meeting to “show that they need to move from their management position about negotiations.”
He noted the school board and OSSTF District 5B are scheduled to return to the bargaining table Jan. 18-19.
The school board has requested a professional mediator to assist in reaching a local settlement.
McCormack said the board is committed to ongoing, respectful, and productive negotiation discussions and will continue to bargain in good faith.
“We are always optimistic to get a deal, but we’ve had eight days to sit down and it’s the same position over and over again,” Kowalski countered.
OSSTF District 5B began taking legal job action, or sanctions, in the form of a partial withdrawal of services on Dec. 9, which includes not providing comments on report cards.
