Ontario’s education minister says he’s hopeful the province can strike a deal with all of its teachers and education workers unions, pledging that schools will open “as usual” after Labour Day.
“I still remain very optimistic,” Paul Calandra said at an unrelated news conference Thursday.
Teachers and education workers in Ontario will start the school year in a few weeks time without new collective agreements after negotiations between most unions and the province stalled.
Earlier this week, the heads of those unions said that strike action is not off the table if they fail to carve out new contracts with the government.
Bargaining talks with the province were paused for every union but the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) over a dispute regarding which issues are negotiated with the province at a centralized versus local level.
Some unions have chosen to bring the matter before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, an independent adjudicative tribunal, for a decision. Calandra said he respects the unions’ decision to do so, while pointing out that the impasse is “not unexpected.”
“We remain committed to get a negotiated settlement so parents have certainty, and students have the best opportunity to succeed,” he said.
At the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario’s (ETFO) annual meeting in Toronto, president David Mastin said the province’s education system is in “crisis” as his union and others work to address what he described as chronic underfunding, a reported attack on how many sick days teachers take, and conditions educators are facing inside the classroom.
Flanked by the heads of Ontario’s other teachers and education unions, Mastin said that while a strike is under consideration should they fail to reach an agreement, job action is not their first choice.
“I think we would do these things one step at a time. We’re not going to jump to the final point and say this is where we’re going to end up. We’re hoping that if we do engage in the strike vote process, that that process does pressure the government to say our members are serious,” he said Monday.
Calandra says parents shouldn’t plan for potential strike
Asked if parents and guardians should plan for a potential strike to start the school year, Calandra said: “Nope.”
“The (school) year will start as scheduled, and it is my expectation that kids will be in the in the classroom for a very long time. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t expect the year to be completed and students to be in classroom the entire time.”
Following Calandra’s comments, Mastin delivered his closing remarks at ETFO’s meeting and highlighted that the Ontario Labour Relations Board decision on which matters get bargained centrally and locally could take weeks or months to be delivered.
“This pause in bargaining may look like the calm before the storm, but the storm isn’t coming; it’s already here, and it’s been here for years,” he said.
Mastin added that, when negotiations do resume, the union “fully” expects the government to return with the same agenda that he says undermines public education.
“It is an agenda that disrespects you, the hardworking educators in this province and it treats students as collateral damage.”
In a statement, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) President Martha Hradowy said although Calandra may be optimistic, the reality is that bargaining has been stalled by a “broken process” that has left its union and others waiting to bargain.
“OSSTF/FEESO is ready to bargain and reach a fair deal, but optimism alone will not get us there,” she said. “The government needs to get back to meaningful negotiations at the central table and allow school board employers to get to local tables with our bargaining units so those negotiations can happen as well.”
Meanwhile, OECTA President René Jansen in de Wal told CTV News Toronto that although the union is in its seventh round of talks with the province, they’ve only finalized the “ground rules so far” and are now discussing the scope of negotiations.
“We are in regular communication with the other education union affiliates, and we are closely monitoring the challenges they have encountered at their respective tables regarding scope, with the government wanting to centralize items that have been traditionally bargained locally,” he said in a statement.