Teachers’ work-to-rule campaign will have ‘zero impact’ on students, union says

Thestar.com
Nov. 25, 2019
Isabel Teotonio

School clubs, sports teams and class trips will continue as planned despite elementary and high school teachers launching a work-to-rule campaign starting Tuesday, which will have “zero impact on student experience.”

“It has some effect on ministry operation, virtually no effect on school board operations and is meant to have zero impact on student experience,” said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, which represents 60,000 members.

“We’re striking a very limited number of administrative kinds of duties that mostly affect the Ministry of Education,” said Bischof, whose union includes public high school teachers and support staff in elementary and secondary schools. “This is meant to call attention to the destructive road that the government is going down right now.”

Similarly, the withdrawal of services by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario -- it represents 83,000 teachers, occasional teachers, and education professionals in public grade schools -- will also be largely administrative.

“This strike action will not affect students, their learning or their safety,” said ETFO President Sam Hammond in a recent media statement. “ETFO members will be withdrawing from ministry and school board administrative activities, which will give them more time to focus on working with students.”

For instance, teachers will not participate in board or ministry professional development; provide comments on report cards or prepare students for provincial standardized tests. Testing is done by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), a provincial agency that assesses reading, writing and math skills. Grade 9 math tests are scheduled for January and June, while Grade 10 literacy testing will be held in March. Elementary students will be tested for all three subjects beginning in May.

Bischof said high school teachers will picket off school property, before and after school or during lunch, handing out pamphlets to parents and members of the public, but not to students. Both unions are in legal strike positions after receiving strong mandates from their members.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said the provincial government is “continuing to be reasonable” and has made some movement on key issues while the high school teachers’ union has not. He said the unions “should have some interest in demonstrating some reasonableness as well.”

Bischof told the Star if his union doesn’t reach a deal, action could escalate to further reduction of services or a strike, noting, “It depends on how the government responds.” As for how negotiations are currently going, he said, “We are a long, long ways apart”

“We are still miles apart on staffing, we’re miles apart on e-learning and we certainly haven’t yet settled compensation and benefits. We’re still apart on sick leave. Basically, there isn’t a substantive area that we’ve settled seven months into the process.”

Teacher unions are opposed to the province’s move to larger classes beginning in Grade 4. In high school, the government wants to boost the average class size to 25, up from last year’s 22, which will lead to fewer teachers and fewer course options. The province also wants to introduce two online mandatory courses for high school students. Originally, the province had proposed that high school class size averages be 28 and that students take four mandatory online courses.

In a statement to parents on Friday, the Toronto District School Board reassured parents that “during this limited withdrawal of services, schools will remain open and instructional programs will continue.”

“However, should the withdrawal of services progress to include further sanctions, it may have a more significant impact on school activities, permits and school operations. If there is a full withdrawal of services or a full strike by OSSTF, the TDSB would be required to close schools as there would not be a sufficient number of staff to supervise students and ensure their safety.”

For ETFO, the last work-to-rule action was in 2015, starting in May and ending in November, when a tentative agreement was reached.

Meanwhile for OSSTF, the last work-to-rule campaign involved support staff and was in October and November 2015. In July of 2015, the union announced teachers would withdraw from extracurricular activities, but an agreement was reached in August, before school started.