Ontario high school teachers’ union to hold vote on proposal that would avoid strike
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) says it will recommended to its union members that they enter into a proposal to “resolve bargaining” with the Ontario government.
The union said bargaining unit presidents and chief negotiators “voted overwhelmingly” in favour of the recommendation at a special meeting on Friday.
The process, according to the union, could including binding interest arbitration.
“The proposal is not a tentative agreement but establishes a clear pathway forward for this round of bargaining,” OSSTF/FEESO said in a press release Friday.
The union said it will now begin preparations for an internal membership vote that will take place through September.
Members — approximately 60,000 education workers and high school teachers — across the province will vote on whether they want to enter into the proposal, the union said.
OSSTF/FEESO President Karen Littlewood said Friday represented a “critical point in this round of bargaining.”
“Since beginning bargaining 13 months ago, OSSTF/FEESO has been fighting to improve the learning and working conditions in Ontario’s schools but the Ford government and school boards have refused to be a fair partner in these negotiation,” Littlewood said in a statement. “This process is not a tentative agreement but it does promise to break any impasse by bringing in a third party arbitrator to seek a fair and just resolution.”
The union said if OSSTF/FEESO members vote in favour of the proposal to resolve bargaining, central bargaining will continue until Oct. 27
“By which date any matters that have not yet been settled with go to arbitration,” the release read. “If the Membership votes no, the proposal will be dropped and bargaining will continue.”
According to the union, if it is accepted, the proposal means there will be no strikes or lockouts during this round of bargaining between OSSTF/FEESO.
“The proposal also guarantees that OSSTF/FEESO Members will receive a remedy for wages lost under Bill 124, the Ford government’s wage suppression legislation that unfairly targeted woman-dominated public sector workers,” the union said. “Members will receive the remedy without having to wait for the courts to decide on the constitutionality of Bill 124.”
In a statement Friday, Ontario’s education minister, Stephen Lecce said he is “pleased” that the government has reached a “tentative four-year-agreement with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation on a process that, if ratified by union members, will keep students in class where they belong.”
“My ongoing commitment to Ontario families is to use every available tool and pursue every path that keeps students in school. Doing so will mean students are in classrooms learning what matters most: reading, writing and math skills.”
Lecce said if approved, the tentative agreement “provides for bargaining to continue without the threat of strikes. If a collective agreement cannot be reached by October 27, 2023, the parties will enter binding interest arbitration to resolve any outstanding issues.”
The four major teachers’ unions have been in bargaining with the government for more than a year and all have complained about the slow pace.
The OSSTF had told members in a recent memo that it was also planning strike votes in the fall, saying the government had shown little interest in substantive negotiations and a strong strike mandate would demonstrate a determination to get a fair deal.
-With files from The Canadian Press.
Ontario government, secondary school teachers' union agree to process to avoid strike
Ontario education minister on the tentative deal
Phil Tsekouras
CTV News Toronto Multi-Platform Writer
Updated Aug. 25, 2023
The Ontario government has announced it will enter a process with the province’s secondary school teachers’ union to avoid strikes and keep kids in school, pending a vote by members.
“This tentative agreement sets out a period of time to continue negotiating in good faith,” Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at a Friday news conference. “If a negotiated agreement can't be reached, the parties will enter into binding interest arbitration, which is a fair and reasonable approach to resolve all outstanding issues.”
In a news release issued prior to Lecce’s remarks, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) said its bargaining unit presidents and chief negotiators voted “overwhelmingly” to enter the process on Friday.
“Today represents a critical point in this round of bargaining,” OSSTF President Karen Littlewood said in a news release.
The OSSTF said it will now begin preparations to hold a vote for its 60,000 members through September on entering the process.
Littlewood underscored while the process is not a tentative agreement, as described by Lecce, it could help to speed up negotiations which have been dragging on for 13 months.
OSSTF will have until Oct. 27 to continue bargaining without the threat of strikes under the terms of the proposal. After that, any items that can’t be agreed upon at the negotiating table will be sent to arbitration, the union said.
Lecce said that the Ontario government has extended its offer to the three other education sector unions in the province, all of which have also been bargaining for over a year.
In response, the Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), and Association of Franco-Ontarian Teachers (AEFO) said that the proposal is “not something” the boards can consider at this time
“Entering into binding arbitration at this juncture would not support the students we serve in elementary and secondary schools – as binding arbitration would all but guarantee that the key issues we have brought forward at our respective bargaining tables, which are critical to learning and working conditions in our schools, would not be addressed,” the boards said in a joint statement.
Last week, the OSSTF and ETFO both announced they were moving towards a strike in the fall and asked their members to vote in favour of walkouts.
On Monday, OECTA followed suit by announcing their plans to hold strike votes in the fall, citing the slow pace of negotiations with the government.
AEFO had also voiced concerns over their negotiations with the province, but has yet to announce plans to hold a strike vote.
"Now that we have a tentative agreement with OSSTF, we have now just invited all three teacher federations to meet with us as early as Monday so that we can lay out this proposed agreement and to ask them to agree to it as well," Lecce said. "This should not take those unions weeks, but rather days to agree to this incredibly fair, reasonable student-focused proposal that keeps kids in school.”
Littlewood said the government’s proposal also “guarantees” that OSSTF members will receive a remedy for "wages lost" due to Bill 124, a 2019 law that she described as a “wage suppression legislation that unfairly targeted woman-dominated public sector workers.”
Bill 124 was struck down as unconstitutional by an Ontario court last year, a decision the Progressive Conservative government has appealed.
With files from The Canadian Press
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