Teachers union says forced into another one-day strike

TORONTO — Ontario’s high school teachers and the provincial government dialled up attacks rather than labour negotiations on Tuesday, all but assuring that a midnight strike that promises to shutter schools.

Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation President Harvey Bischof said the union and the government have not held contract talks since last week and were not set to talk before Wednesday’s job action.

Bischof said the strike could not be avoided despite Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s pleas to call it off and enter into third-party mediation with the government.

The one-day strike is the latest job action planned by the union in a bid to ramp up pressure on the government during the tense contract talks.

It will impact a series of boards including Canada’s largest, the Toronto District School Board, as well as boards in Southwestern, Eastern and Northern Ontario.

It follows a provincewide strike last week that shuttered every public high school and some elementary schools.

The teachers have been without a contract since their last deal with the government expired at the end of August, along with contracts with all public education staff in the province.

The government has inked deals with two unions representing education workers, but remains at odds with a number of other major teachers’ unions.

Bischof said the union knows Wednesday’s pending disruption will impact students and parents, but said teachers have no choice but to push back against increases in class sizes and mandatory e-learning courses.

Earlier in the afternoon, Lecce said meeting all the union’s compensation and class-size demands, and applying those same terms to other education unions, would cost the province $7 billion over three years.

Bischof questioned the number, saying the OSSTF request for a cost of living increase — which comes in at approximately two per cent a year — would cost $200 million.