WELLINGTON COUNTY – Catholic school teachers are holding a province-wide one-day strike on March 5.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) announced in a Feb. 27 press release that teachers in publicly funded Catholic boards across Ontario “will not be reporting to work or performing any of their teaching duties.”
Locally, the strike will impact the Wellington Catholic District School Board.
The decision to once again hold a province-wide strike comes after OECTA suspended its planned rotating strikes, which would have hit Wellington County on Feb. 28, due to further negotiations with the government.
However, talks broke down.
“Instead of coming to the table with a plan to reach an agreement, the government continued to insist on its deep, permanent cuts,” said OECTA president Liz Stuart in a press release.
“All the while, the Minister of Education has continued his attempts to mislead the public, by making baseless accusations against Catholic teachers and our association, and by peddling the inaccurate claim that enhancements to our benefits plan is the sticking point in bargaining.”
In a Feb. 28 press release Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said the strikes have lead to millions of student days lost.
“This week, while in discussions with OECTA, we sought to get a deal that is in the best interests of our students through lower class sizes, 100 per cent investment in special education and protecting full-day kindergarten,” Lecce stated.
“Yet again, we have seen obstruction to a deal because of an insistence by the union on enhancements to an already generous benefit package.
“Students deserve to be in class. That is why I am calling on OECTA to return to the table to get a deal.”
OECTA officials have also received the results of its bad-faith bargaining complaint against the crown.
The union says the evidence has confirmed education stakeholders and the public “reject” the plan to increase class sizes. The full education consultation documents are now available by application under the Tribunal Adjudicative Records Act.
OSSTF and OECTA
Neither the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) or the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have announced further walkouts as of Feb. 28.
