Members of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association are willing to hit the picket line to back contract demands.
OECTA members held a province-wide strike vote this week, where members voted 97.1% in favour of strike action, if needed.
Local OECTA Secondary President, Joe Brannagan says he loves the results.
"To send a message loud and clear that the Windsor-Essex Catholic teachers are in full support of a fairly negotiated agreement," says Brannagan. "I love the number and I'm certainly looking forward to something positive happening out of all of this at the positive level."
Brannagan says his members understand the cuts from the government have nothing to do with education.
"It sends a very strong message from our members directly to the provincial government, saying this is not acceptable," he says.
In March, the province announced plans to increase class sizes to 28 students as part of a number of education reform measures. In October, the province then announced a change to the original plan, moving to 25 students per classroom at the high school level.
Despite the shift by the government, Brannagan says classroom size remain a key issue in contract talks.
"They understand the fact that the cuts the government wants to make have nothing to do with education, everything to do with dollar signs," he says. "Like in the secondary schools for example, changing the average class from 28 to 22, now 25 instead of 22-to-one, means job loss. It doesn't mean a better education for the students. It doesn't mean a better learning environment."
Brannagan says with occasional teachers, there are 700 secondary OECTA members and roughly 1100 elementary OECTA members in this area.
The union represents 45,000 members across the province.
Contract talks are ongoing and OECTA is not in a legal strike position as of yet.