It appears both the provincial government and elementary school teachers are locked in a battle with no end in sight to their labour dispute.
550 public elementary school teachers hit rotating picket lines in Thunder Bay and in Armstrong today as talks still haven’t occured between the province and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.
Local ETFO President Mike Judge feels the parents are on their side.
“Our permission is pretty easy one to get behind, we are looking for funding for special education students, we are looking to protect our world class kindergarten model and we are looking for support to help with the violence in our schools. These are easy things to support,” said Judge.
Judge went on to say the government is holding the education system hostage.
“They can go out there with all the sound bites they want but we know the truth. We are ready to bargain and we are ready to get back into the classroom,” Judge added.
David Mastin is the Vice President of the Elementary School Teachers Federation of Ontario and tells us the province has put out a smear campaign against teachers. Mastin spoke at one of the six picket lines in our city today and said they “fully expect the provincial government and Doug Ford to try and demonize education workers in the province because they have a bigger goal to remove funding from a very precious system that we live in everyday.”
He went on to say they have seen the impact of government funding cuts on their students.
Recently, Ontario Educaton Minister Stephen Lecce has said that parents on the government’s side and the job action by teachers has hurt student learning.
Lecce sent our newsroom this statement:
“We continue to stand up against the withdrawal of services to students in Thunder Bay and across the province. Teacher union leaders broke their promise to not adversely impact student learning by withdrawing services for our kids, including EQAO math testing, extracurriculars, and report cards.
We recognize the impact of union escalation on families is real. That’s why our government launched its Support for Parents initiative that puts money directly into the pockets of parents.
The immense uptake of our Support for Parents initiative speaks volumes to the level of uncertainty union-led strike action causes. For decades, families have faced union job action far too often. Students deserve better, and most importantly, our government believes they deserve to be in class. We will continue our work with one focus: landing deals that keep students in class.”
The strike comes on the heels of word that the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is going to strike on Monday in the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board areas.
“ETFO is very disappointed that Ford’s Education Minister Lecce has not come back to the bargaining table to negotiate key issues affecting students, student learning and educators,” said ETFO President Sam Hammond. “It is now 34 days since ETFO’s last bargaining session on December 19, 2019.
