With contracts with teachers set to run out later this summer, Ontario's Education Minister is calling their unions to the bargaining table now.
Lisa Thompson issued a statement Tuesday.
"Our government took the unprecedented step this month of providing teachers' unions with an opportunity to start early good faith bargaining to allow labour negotiations to conclude in time to ensure our students will be in classes, where they belong, in September," wrote Thompson.
The statement said the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation has already accepted the invitation, but Thompson expressed disappointment other unions including the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and Ontario Elementary Catholic Teachers Association have not.
"Those federations and unions who continue to delay the bargaining process are acting irresponsibly and unnecessary fear and anxiety for parents. They continue to prioritize their own agenda at the cost of student success and sow seeds of division and doubt," chastized Thompson.
Students receive instruction on a math problem from their teacher at H.J. Lassaline, November 18, 2015. (Photo by Maureen Revait)
Since their election last spring, the relationship between the Ford government and teachers' unions has been acrimonious.
When Thompson announced larger class sizes for grades four and up, and more e-learning at the high school level, Premier Doug Ford promised the changes would result in no teachers' layoffs, but a memo sent to school boards outlined plans to eliminate more than 3,400 teaching positions over the next four years.
School boards have also warned larger class-sizes could mean the loss of some elective courses including the arts and skilled trades. Those fears prompted a province-wide student walkout.
Tuesday afternoon, teachers unions plan to rally against changes to education outside the office of Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls in Chatham after some education workers in the Lambton-Kent District School Board received layoff notices.
Last week, the Ford government attempted to rectify those losses by giving school boards a slight funding increase designed to protect those teachers in boards where the number of redundancies would outnumber retirements.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also introduced a motion Monday in the legislature calling on the Ford government to reverse funding cuts to education, changes to the student-teacher ratio, and mandatory e-learning, but the Progressive Conservative majority defeated it.
Teachers' contracts, negotiated by the previous Wynne government, are set to expire August 31, and the statement said the Ford government is considering changing the expiry date to another time of year.
"We believe this is unacceptable," read the statement. "Our government will be considering changing the expiry date of future education sector labour agreements to a different time of year to minimize any disruption to students' ability to attend class."
