Heather Latter
With a deal unable to be reached by mediation between the Rainy River District School Board and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (District 5B) last week, the local teachers’ union is asking for more respect from the board.
“They always make mention in their [press] releases about the board values its partnership with parents, which is nice,” noted OSSTF local president Kent Kowalski.
“It’s good. You’re supposed to do that,” he remarked.
“But there’s a partnership with us that should be a respectful arrangement,” Kowalski added.
“We would like to see that.”
For instances, Kowalski said the teachers learned about the board’s request for a mediator to assist in reaching a local settlement through a media release.
“They never contacted us,” he stressed.
“It falls back to the respectful approach to the process and trying to work through the process.”
Local secondary teachers have been without a collective agreement since the last one expired on 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 deal.
Mediated talks between the two groups ended unsuccessfully last Tuesday night.
“The board shares the disappointment of students and their families that an agreement could not be reached, and the local teachers’ union has chosen withdrawal of services over the negotiations table,” board chair Dianne McCormack said in a release issued Thursday.
“We are extremely frustrated as the board’s proposals are comparable to those of our local elementary teachers and of other school board agreements across Ontario,” she noted.
“And [they] do not erode OSSTF’s current agreement as they contain responses to proposals from OSSTF only,” McCormack added.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” Kowalski vowed.
“We have a hard time with the board’s approach of cherry-picking selective things where they may comment it’s good enough for the elementary teachers,” he noted.
“We’re not the elementary teachers,” Kowalski stressed. “We would like a deal for secondary teachers in this area that reflects what we need in this area, not from Peel District or any other district because that doesn’t work.
“We want a local deal. We want local priorities,” he explained.
“It’s not what they’re giving another group or what another group got across the province.”
OSSTF members made their presence known at school board’s regular meeting earlier this month—and Kowalski said they’re planning to be at the next one this coming Tuesday (Feb. 2).
He noted they are planning to picket at the board office after school hours.
“I will be contacting the other union affiliates, both employee groups of the board, as well as others in town for support,” Kowalski said.
In the meantime, secondary teachers are continuing their partial withdrawal of services that began Dec. 9, which includes not providing comments on report cards.
“The sanctions were carefully selected to have no effect on what goes on in the classroom, what teachers deliver, as well as interaction with students or access to assistance of any sort,” Kowalski noted.
“The school, as far as students and parents are concerned, should run seamlessly.
“The withdrawal was for extra work that has to be made up by administration,” he explained.
Kowalski also said they hope to return to the table to reach a deal.
“When [they’re] ready, we will be and we’ll go from there,” he remarked.
