Sandals hopeful about reaching new teacher contracts before September
Posted August 12, 2015 6:03 am.
Last Updated August 12, 2015 2:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Education Minister Liz Sandals is feeling optimistic about reaching new contract agreements with Ontario’s big teachers’ unions before the start of classes Sept. 8.
Sandals said she gets a good sense that everyone wants to reach deals now that talks have resumed with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers and will start next week with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, which represents Catholic elementary and high school teachers, have been without a contract for more than a year, and will be in a legal strike position on Aug. 17.
Talks are scheduled for the public high school teachers union on Aug. 18 and 19, right before the union holds its annual leadership meeting in Ottawa.
However, the education minister is warning the four big teachers’ unions that they can’t unilaterally decide what job actions they’ll take if there are no deals when school resumes and call it a work-to-rule campaign.
Sandals notes they will all soon be in legal strike positions, and says refusing to administer standardized tests – one of the potential job actions the teachers’ unions have proposed – is “a strike action.”
The government is also talking with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation about finding common ground for a resumption of negotiations.
Sandals said there was already a lot of bargaining with the teachers’ unions, even if it was “in fits and starts,” and many issues have already been resolved.
All the province’s teachers’ unions say without a new deal, there will be some sort of labour action come September.
The contracts for all Ontario teachers expired last August.
