Public elementary teachers are planning a massive one-day, province-wide strike next week as contract talks with the Ontario government continue to flounder.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has announced all of its 83,000 members will walk off the job next Thursday, February 6. In addition to the province-wide job action, one-day strikes rotating from school board to school board will continue throughout the entire week.
The Thames Valley, Avon Maitland, and Lambton Kent school boards will be targeted on Tuesday, February 4, while elementary teachers within the Greater Essex County board will walk off the job on Friday, February 7. The Thames Valley District School Board says it will close all elementary schools on Tuesday and Thursday.
The union said the escalation of its rotating strikes will go ahead as planned unless a central agreement is reached with the provincial government by Friday.
"Educators and parents are not going to accept the government’s deep cuts to public education that only serve to harm the quality of education for generations to come,” ETFO President Sam Hammond said in a statement issued Monday. “From ETFO’s perspective, fair contract talks must include appropriate funding for special education; a strategy to address classroom violence; maintaining our internationally recognized kindergarten program; fair hiring practices; class sizes that meet the needs of elementary students; and compensation that keeps up with inflation.”
Hammond went on to issue a challenge to Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce to send provincial negotiators back to the bargaining table to address the concerns of teachers.
"Because in four months of talks from August through December 2019, his negotiators had no mandate to discuss them,” said Hammond.
The latest series of rotating one-day strikes will mark the third week of such job action by Ontario public elementary teachers.
The Ford government is currently involved in tense contract talks with all four of Ontario’s major teacher unions, all of which are engaged in some form of job action, including work-to-rule campaigns.
