Elementary teachers vote for strike action Secondary teachers likely to follow suit

Members of the local Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario voted unanimously in favour of strike action earlier this week in light of slow negotiations with the Rainy River District School Board.
A full 100 percent of those attending Monday night’s meeting gave their union a mandate to take any and all action—including a full-withdrawal-of-services strike—to achieve their contract goals.
“This strike vote sends a message to the Rainy River District School Board that their elementary teachers are prepared to do whatever it takes to improve their daily working conditions,” said ETFO president Emily Noble.
“Excessive workload is a huge concern at the elementary level,” she noted. “Unless we achieve 200 minutes of preparation time in this collective agreement, there will be no deal signed.”
District elementary teachers currently have 150 minutes of preparation time per week.
Elementary teachers across the province also are asking for “real salary increases,” a maximum of 60 minutes of supervision time per week, enhanced language for pregnancy and parental leave, and improved benefit provisions.
“Despite the board’s reluctance to move on the issues prior to the strike vote, we still want to reach a resolution at our next bargaining meeting,” said Sharon Preston, president of the local ETFO.
“Our members are prepared to negotiate and they are prepared to strike. The next move is up to the board,” she added.
The next step for the teachers will be to begin a work-to-rule campaign in March if no agreement has been reached by then.
The local ETFO represents 106 public elementary school teachers. They have been without a contract since Aug. 31.
Negotiations with the school board continued this week.
“The Monday afternoon negotiation session with the Rainy River District School Board was ponderous and often frustrating,” Preston said.
Things improved Tuesday, she said, when the conciliator appointed by the Labour Relations Board sat in on the talks, which were “generally positive and productive.”
“Through meaningful discussion and co-operation, common ground was attained on a number of issues,” Preston noted. “Having said that, there were still some very important issues left outstanding.”
The two sides plan to meet again in early March.
In related news, local members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation likely will hold a strike vote in mid-February, chief negotiator Andrew Hallikas told the Times.
However, their strike vote will be to send a message to the provincial government, not the local public school board, he noted.
“This strike vote that we’re taking in no way is directed at our board,” Hallikas said yesterday.
“We are very pleased with the co-operation and the support that we’ve gotten from our board,” he added. “We’re quite happy with the way bargaining is going.
“But the board as well has their hands tied.”
Current legislation does not allow for the funding that teachers are asking for to ensure increases in compensation, benefits, and working conditions.
“If they don’t change the legislation, we won’t be able to settle,” Hallikas said.
The existing legislation was put in place by the former Conservative government, which was more hostile towards teachers, he noted.
“The Conservatives pretty well made a mess of the education system,” Hallikas charged.
The Ontario Public School Board Association also is lobbying the McGuinty government to change the legislation and make the necessary funds available.
Hallikas said local negotiations are going well, otherwise.
“We’re making a lot of progress on non-monetary issues,” he remarked. “We have an excellent working relationship with the board.”
Besides province-wide issues, OSSTF local District 5B is working on local issues of importance to secondary teachers in Rainy River District.
But effective Jan. 24, the OSSTF will begin resumption of bargaining, effectively putting locals in a provincial takeover.
“Our provincial office is taking over all of the bargaining that’s happening across the province,” Hallikas said. “Which means they’ll send down two people to join our bargaining team.
“Both sides are still optimistic,” he added.
The two who will be joining the bargaining talks here—a provincial negotiator and someone from the OSSTF’s provincial executive—are in the process of setting dates for the next round of negotiations.
Local secondary school teachers also have been without a contract since Aug. 31.