High school teachers across the province will soon be voting on whether or not they should strike.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) announced Tuesday it will begin holding strike votes among its members next week.
The decision to begin the process that could see high school teachers walking the picket line was made after months of "delays and inaction" by the Ontario government, OSSTF President Harvey Bischof said in a statement.
“The government claims that it wants to resolve these negotiations quickly. But from the beginning, they have done nothing to help expedite the process, and now they are simply refusing to discuss substantive issues at the bargaining table," said Bischof. “They delayed the start of bargaining by two months and have thrown procedural roadblocks in the way ever since.”
Bischof went on to claim the government is refusing to engage in "meaningful discussions about the most important issues."
"Through five days of bargaining they’ve brought absolutely nothing of substance to the table,” Bischof added.
Additional bargaining dates between the union, school boards, and government are scheduled for later this month and into November.
The union will finish conducting its strike votes by November 15.
As a way of maintaining transparency and accountability, the union has taken the unusual step of posting all of its documents from the collective bargaining process online.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is currently holding a strike vote of its own. Its members are expected to wrap up voting on October 30.
Both groups of teachers have been without a contract since the end of August.
Earlier this month, the Ford government narrowly avoided a strike by Ontario's 55,000 educational support workers. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) reached the tentative three-year deal with the province hours before its members were set to walk, a move that would have forced schools across the province to close.