The union representing public high school teachers says its members in the London, Chatham, and Sarnia areas will hit the picket line for one day next week.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation announced Thursday that one-day strikes will be held at select school boards on Tuesday, February 4. The Thames Valley District School Board and the Lambton Kent District School Board are among the boards being targeted on Tuesday.
The one day strike will happen on the same day that elementary school teachers with the Thames Valley District School Board and the Lambton Kent District School Board hold their own one-day walkout. The union representing Catholic school teachers will hold a province-wide one-day strike on that same day.
According to the OSSTF, president Harvey Bischof has offered to post pending job actions if the Ontario government agrees to "return to, and maintain, the class size ratios and staffing levels that were in place in Ontario schools just one year ago."
“OSSTF/FEESO members are not the only ones who understand the enormity of the damage that will ensue if this government’s education agenda is allowed to unfold,” Bischof said in a statement released Thursday. “It is now clear from multiple polls, and even from the government’s own public consultations, that a significant majority of Ontarians recognize the folly of larger classes, diminished supports, mandatory online learning, and fewer course options for the province’s students.”
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.
