‘It’s concerning’: Concerns over Ontario teachers’ strike rise amid slow talks

Talks with Ontario teachers’ unions continue at a sluggish pace with no deal in sight, union leaders say, and the lack of progress has some government sources worried about the possibility of a strike this fall.

But Barb Dobrowolski, president of the Ontario Catholic English Teachers Association, said its 45,000 members don’t feel like going on strike “even though they are frustrated with the pace… They would like to see some progress.”

She said that “we are trying to keep a good relationship at the table, but at times that has been difficult, where we feel like we are putting in a lot of effort that we don’t see coming from the other side…progress has been extremely slow.”

Dobrowolski also said that it is premature to talk about labor actions.

“We haven’t heard anything that, at this point, would trigger that.”

But senior government officials, speaking confidentially to discuss internal deliberations, say they fear strikes in September.

They point to the slow pace of negotiations with some federations as evidence that teachers may not want to reach an agreement right away.

“It’s worrying,” said a high-ranking official.

However, some have suggested that the government may be reluctant to set wage increases while it appeals Bill 124, legislation that was struck down by the court as unconstitutional for limiting wage increases for the general public sector to one percent per year.

If he’s hard-pressed to raise salaries retroactively, it would affect the cost to the treasury of any salary increases in a new contract.

Karen Littlewood, president of the 60,000-member Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, said her union has two bargaining dates in March and two in April “and that’s it.”

“And the last time we were negotiating, they didn’t say anything about the fact that the next day they were going to present the regulation to give us a four-year contract, instead of talking about it at the table, they imposed it. About us.”

Teachers in the province have been without a contract since the last one expired at the end of August 2022. At the end of February, the provincial government modified a rule that establishes that collective agreements that begin on September 1, 2022 “will have a term of validity of four years. .”

That is in line with the agreement reached with 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ school board bargaining unit, as well as comments made publicly by Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

In the past, agreements used to last for three years. The four-year agreements with the education unions would expire after the next provincial elections.

Teachers unions were also upset with Thursday’s provincial budget, which increased basic education funding from $32.4 billion to $34.7 billion, but Littlewood said that’s not enough to cover inflation or the services children need.

His union ran full-page ads in the Toronto Star, Globe, Post and Sun, saying that the government is “defrauding education” and is “taking its toll”.

“It is our duty to speak up when education funding doesn’t even keep up with inflation,” Littlewood also said.

“This deliberate change to public education will have a long-term impact on Ontario students, and it didn’t have to be that way.”

The Ontario Federation of Elementary Teachers will be at the bargaining table on three dates in April, both for education workers and the teachers it represents.

After a day of talks on March 22 for its education workers, the union told members in a memo that “discussions remain positive and progress continues to be made.”

Robert Benzie is the bureau chief for Star’s Queen’s Park and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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