Strike vote for Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario on Thursday

ETFO members will be meeting in Cobourg to vote on job action

Elementary teachers for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board will vote on Thursday on whether they wish to go on strike.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario members will meet at the Cobourg Community Centre at 6:15 p.m. to decide if they wish to take job action in their collective bargaining negotiations with the province.

On Wednesday, the union asked the province’s labour minister to appoint a conciliator in the talks.

The union continues to negotiate and is holding strike votes across the province until the end of the month.

“ETFO’s goal is to reach fair agreements for our members that also enhance learning conditions for Ontario’s elementary students,” said president Sam Hammond.

“These are achievable goals, and ETFO will do everything it can to reach them. That includes participating in the legal steps of the collective bargaining process, like conciliation and taking strike votes.”

The members-only meeting, involving elementary teachers, occasional teachers and designated early childhood educators, will discuss central bargaining issues.

The union’s executive is seeking support from members for bargaining priorities that include more support for students with special needs, protecting kindergarten, class size and class structure, and fair and transparent hiring practices.

A central strike vote is one part of the legal bargaining process established under Ontario labour laws.

There are two Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario central negotiation tables.

One is for teachers and occasional teachers and the other is for educational workers, which includes designated early childhood educators, education support personnel and professional support personnel.

The province narrowly avoided a strike earlier this month by school support workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which almost caused school doors to shut.

But a teachers’ strike could pose another opportunity for schools to close.

On Tuesday, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation announced it, too, would be holding strike votes for the next month, saying negotiations are going nowhere.

— with files from Peterborough This Week