Ontario reaches tentative deal with 3,500 elementary school education workers

The province has reached a tentative four-year agreement with education workers represented by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.

Thestar.com
Sept. 25, 2023
Kristin Rushowy

The province has reached a tentative deal with education workers represented by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, almost four weeks after announcing a proposal that would see public high school teachers and school staffers avoid strikes through binding arbitration.

“After a prolonged and difficult bargaining process, we are pleased to be able to bring forward a tentative central agreement to our education worker members that addresses their key bargaining goals,” Karen Brown, president of ETFO, said in a written statement.

“As we have been reminding the Ford government all along, tentative agreements are possible when all parties are genuinely engaged and when you give the legal bargaining process a chance.”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the agreement, combined with the proposal that’s now being voted on by 60,000 members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation -- both educators and education workers -- would stave off labour disruption for almost all education workers in the province.

“From day one, my focus has been keeping kids in class,” Lecce said in a written statement. “We are taking an important step towards delivering on this priority by announcing another tentative central agreement with the ETFO education workers, helping to bring stability to families and elementary students in Ontario. This is the latest in a series of significant agreements that help ensure kids stay in class, learning with their friends and educators, and benefiting from our back to basics focus.”

ETFO represents 80,000 teachers as well as 3,500 early childhood educators and other support workers in boards across the province. It is currently conducting strike votes among its members, but said the one for education workers will be halted as they begin voting on the tentative four-year deal.

Other education workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, had already reached a four-year deal late last year, and the province has also landed a collective agreement with the smaller Ontario Council of Educational Workers.

While details have not been released, the ETFO deal is expected to be similar to the one with CUPE workers, which provided a $1-an-hour raise each year. Sources say it also provides a “me too”-type clause should education workers represented by the high school teachers’ union bargain a superior deal. One issue the sides could not agree on was sent to arbitration, sources told the Star.

The CUPE deal was reached after the province introduced -- and then was forced to rescind -- legislation that pre-emptively banned a strike by the 55,000 workers and imposed a contract on them using the “notwithstanding” clause in the Charter of Rights. Workers walked off the job for two days.

The province has not reached negotiated agreements with any of the teachers’ unions, but continues to urge three of them -- ETFO, the Catholic teachers union and AEFO, which represents French-board teachers -- to also agree to binding arbitration, which would kick in at the end of October on all outstanding issues and rule out the possibility of any strikes for the next three years.

OSSTF members continue to vote on that proposal until Sept. 27, and results will be shared later next week.

The last round of education contracts expired in August 2022.

Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, which is also at the bargaining table, said the tentative ETFO deal “acknowledges the significance of education workers in our schools and values the daily contributions they make to enhance students’ educational experience.”

The deal covers education workers in 12 public boards, including Durham, Halton, Hamilton-Wentworth, Simcoe County and Waterloo Region.