Elementary school teachers in Niagara will walk off the job two days in a row early next month as the labour dispute with the union continues.
On February 6, a province-wide job action will see all members of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario on the picket lines, with an additional day of striking the next day in Niagara and Hamilton-Wentworth as well as another select few areas.
The union has set a deadline for January 31 for the province to meet their demands.
This latest set of strikes is one in a long row of labour action taken by teachers on elementary- and high school level in both public and catholic schools.
The ETFO represents 83,000 elementary public school teachers, occasional teachers and education professionals across the province.
“Educators and parents are not going to accept the government’s deep cuts to public education that only serve to harm the quality of education for generations to come", said ETFO president Sam Hammond in a statement.
“From ETFO’s perspective, fair contract talks must include: appropriate funding for Special Education; a strategy to address classroom violence; maintaining our internationally recognized Kindergarten program; fair hiring practices; class sizes that meet the needs of elementary students; and compensation that keeps up with inflation”, he continued.
The negotiations broke down late last year, and the last bargaining session between the parties was held almost 40 days ago.
“I challenge the minister to send his negotiators back to the table to address these issues because in four months of talks from August through December 2019, his negotiators had no mandate to discuss them”, Hammond said.
Earlier this month the DSBN decided to cancel the EQAO-tests due to be held in January as a result of a work-to-rule decision.
The tests are scheduled for later this semester instead.
