It will take ‘miracle’ to avert teachers strike, ETFO York Region president says

Yorkregion.com
April 6, 2015
By Lisa Queen

With elementary teachers gearing up for “strike action” starting Monday, mother Heidi Stabler is worried what that will mean for students.

“I know it’s going to negatively impact the kids because the teachers will not be putting forth as much effort as they normally do. They will claw back,” said Stabler, who has children in grades 6 and 8 at Newmarket’s Stonehaven Elementary School.

“When they had the last work-to-rule, there was a lot of negative impact, significant negative impact, on sports teams, on any extracurricular clubs and on travel. There was a Grade 8 trip to Ottawa that was missed and I think there was a trip to Algonquin that was missed. They had to double that up the next year to give the students that missed that opportunity (the chance) to go.”

Stabler is also upset the teachers’ union is not yet being forthcoming with what the job action will entail.

Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president Sam Hammond has indicated details of the “strike action” won’t be made public until Friday to give union brass a chance to communicate with union representatives, the federation’s York Region’s president David Clegg said yesterday.

Unless there is a “miracle” on the part of the provincial government and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association to engage in meaningful negotiations with the union, job action will definitely begin Monday, he said.

Negotiations have broken off and there are no scheduled meetings.

It is expected 730,000 teachers across the province, including 5,000 in York Region, will begin with a work-to-rule campaign that will initially affect administrative duties such as refusing to participate in EQAO standardized tests and withholding comments on report cards.

It is believed extracurricular activities will be spared in the early days of any labour unrest, although Clegg said union action will escalate if necessary.

“The last thing they (teachers) want to do is withdraw those activities that add value to children’s lives. That, categorically, is the last thing they want to do,” he said.

There are more than 817,000 elementary students in the province who would be affected by any job action, including about 68,000 in York Region.

Elementary teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31.

The union is upset the government is demanding teachers’ two-year wage freeze be extended for another three years, Clegg said.

“Teachers are not prepared to pay for the fiscal ineptitude of the Wynne government,” he said, pointing to government scandals such as eHealth, ORNGE air ambulance and gas plants.

Bill 115, adopted in 2013, already removed $2.1 billion from the education sector by taking away teachers’ banked sick leave, he added.

Clegg criticized Wynne for failing to live up to promises to bring peace and stability to education.

The union is also upset with a demand by the school board association that would give principals the ability to direct what teachers do during their prep time, which insults teachers’ professionalism, Clegg said.

Meanwhile, although secondary school teachers in Durham and Peel regions are now on strike, and those in Halton may be among the next to walk the picket lines, no job action at the secondary level is anticipated for the time being in York Region since high school teachers here are not even at the conciliation stage in labour negotiations, Lori Foote, associate general secretary of professional services with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said.

While teachers with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, which represents teachers at the elementary and secondary levels, voted 94.2 per cent last month in favour of a strike mandate, no job action will happen in the immediate future, president James Ryan said.

Catholic teachers won’t be in a strike position until mid-June, he said.

Conservative Thornhill MPP Gila Martow is blaming Premier Kathleen Wynne for the labour strife in Ontario schools.

“The Ontario PC Party is disappointed that the Liberal government has given teachers no other option than to strike in an effort to get the government to take negotiations seriously,” she said in a statement.

“Twelve years of Liberal mismanagement has forced the government into a situation where they are unable to negotiate fairly with the teachers. As a parent of four kids who are now in high school and post-secondary institutions, I am urging all parties to focus on the students and get back to the bargaining table.”