Education protest – Local Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) education workers participated in a day of action on Oct. 28 to protest the provincial government’s cuts to education. OSSTF encompasses different bargaining units representing secondary teachers, occasional teachers, professional student services personnel, educational student support personnel/early childhood educators and office clerical/technical staff. They were outside MPP Ted Arnott’s office in Fergus. They chose Oct. 28 because it was the day the provincial government resumed sitting in the legislature after a five month break.
“We just felt that it was important that we had our message across there and we want them to change the focus, change the direction of where they’ve been going with education,” said Teresa Katerberg, vice president of the teachers bargaining unit of District 18 OSSTF. “The cuts are devastating our world-renowned, world-class education system and what is being done to it is devastating and we need to stop it, we need to protect the future of our kids and their education.”
One of the biggest points of contention is the government’s move to alter class size ratios. Katerberg said bargaining units are in the process now of holding strike and information meetings. A strike vote will likely be held in the future.
