OSSTF set to resume talks with province on Thursday

The union representing Ontario high school teachers is heading back to the bargaining table with the provincial government.

Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Harvey Bischof says they have been asked back by the mediator “and we have accepted her invitation.”

The two sides are scheduled to resume talks on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the negotiations will be conducted via teleconference.

The OSSTF, which represents 60,000 secondary teachers and support staff, is the only union still without a contract.

Bischof tells 680 NEWS that while we’re now operating under “an unprecendented environment” with respect to COVID-19, he cautioned against a quick resolution.

“Nobody should expect anything to happen very quickly, certainly not tomorrow,” said Bischof. “I’d say we’re committed to a good faith exploration of the outstanding issues and to see if we can resolve those in a way to serve students’ best interests.”

Bischof also cautioned that what is happening now with students learning from home during the coronavirus outbreak should not be confused with the issue of e-learning which remains unresolved at the bargaining table.

“Those are two very different things. Our members are committing to supporting students through this difficult time, but it’s different from the previous proposal.”

The Ford government had proposed requiring students take four e-learning courses to graduate as well as increasing the average high school class sizes from 22 to 28 – which would lead to thousands of fewer teachers in the system.

The government has partly backed off on both issues, offering to instead increase average high school class sizes to 25 and require two online learning courses.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association reached a tentative agreement with the province back on March 12. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario reached a new deal eight days later. The union representing the province’s 12,000 French-language teachers reached a tentative deal Tuesday with the government.

Memos obtained by The Canadian Press show that the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association secured annual wage increases of one per cent and benefits increases of four per cent.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report