Midnight deadline looms for teachers to come to deal with province

As we ring in the New Year at midnight, Ontario’s teachers could be ringing in an imposed contract that they have fought against for months.

Ontario’s public education unions have until midnight Monday to strike deals with school boards across the province. If agreements aren’t made, the provincial government could impose a contract on teachers under Bill 115.

Teachers have already taken job action in protest of the legislation, including cancelling extracurricular activities in both elementary and high schools. Elementary teachers also held a series of rolling one-day walkouts earlier this month.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have vowed to hold a one-day political protest if a contract is imposed on their members.

Bill 115, also called the Putting Students First Act, passed on Sept. 11 with the help of the Progressive Conservatives. It allows the government to impose a two-year contract on teachers that includes a wage freeze, a 50-per-cent reduction in educators’ sick days from 20 to 10 and ends teachers’ ability to bank unused sick days. But most controversially, it gives Education Minister Laurel Broten the power to end a strike or lockout without debating the issue in the provincial legislature.

On Sunday Broten announced a tentative deal had been reached with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents about 55,000 school support workers, including educational assistants, custodians, librarians and secretaries.

Broten says 65 ratified agreements have so far been submitted. She hasn’t signalled if she’ll impose contracts on Tuesday.

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