A strong stike mandate from secondary teachers in Windsor-Essex.
OSSTF District 9 members have voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action to back contract demands, if necessary.
“This strong local strike mandate demonstrates that the OSSTF members in Greater Essex are ready and willing to stand up for public education, no matter what it takes," says OSSTF District 9 President Erin Roy. "The educational cuts that are currently proposed would leave our secondary schools a shadow of what they are today, and we can’t let that happen. The public would be disappointed if we didn’t stand up for publicly funded education.”
There are about 1600 OSSTF members in the region. Most are teachers but educational support staff, psychologists and several other job categories are also represented.
OSSTF President Harvey Bischoff says staffing is a major sticking point because it’s through staff that they're able to provide the proper support.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said the government will scale the funded average class sizes back to 25 from the 28 it has been proposing for months.
But Roy says the students to teacher ratio numbers that are being proposed don't make sense.
"28 to 1 would result in class sizes well over 40, 25 to 1 doesn't do much better," says Roy. "That's the one area I see little compromise on. Our system works at 22 to 1."
The central strike vote results should be known by mid-November.