Durham teachers strike could be first wave of labour unrest
Six more school boards targeted as unions grow increasingly frustrated at bargaining table
Durham public high school teachers will hit the picket lines on Monday in a protest widely seen as the start of a wave of teacher unrest across the province, with six more boards targeted in the coming weeks and other unions growing increasingly frustrated at the bargaining table.
“There’s an intensity of emotions with regard to the issues . . . and there’s a definite philosophical divide that could very well prolong this action,” said Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and chair of the Durham District School Board. “I’m not sure at this point, based upon the conversations that have been going on at the provincial table,” whether a deal can soon be reached, he said. “When there’s no light at the tunnel, it’s tough to see out of the darkness.”
On the weekend, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation formally ended all talks at the provincial level, and had previously accused the government and school boards’ association of not bargaining seriously, seeking “strips” or clawbacks to previously won gains. Those include bigger class sizes, more out-of-class supervision time, as well as a demand for an unpaid day off and a slower movement up the salary grid.
But in the past, the school boards were vocal about their opposition to a number of rules imposed on them during the last round of bargaining, including a regulation that forces principals to hire long-term supply teachers based on seniority rather than fitness for the job, as well as allowing teachers to decide which diagnostic tests to use on students, arguing there would be no consistency from year to year.
Earlier last month, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, which is holding strike votes this week, opposed any clawback, saying it was a blow to teacher professionalism.
For the first time, the province, school board associations and teacher unions are bargaining under new legislation where costly items such as salaries and benefits are settled at the provincial table, while school boards and union districts negotiate local deals on items specific to each.
The new system was supposed to help avoid labour chaos, after the 2012-13 school year that saw teacher walkouts and work-to-rule campaigns to protest a contract being imposed on teachers.
While some bargaining did eventually take place, neither unions nor the school boards were happy with the process.
Although the complexity of the new system can be blamed for some of the delay, teachers have been without a contract since last August and the union is now putting pressure on the provincial talks with local strike action, which could hit Peel, Halton, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Ottawa and Waterloo in short order.
Other insiders say that despite the government being seen as education friendly, no one should rule out broader job action come this fall, involving all teacher unions, should provincial talks continue at such a slow pace.
The government has been clear there’s no money for salary increases unless teachers give up something to cover the cost. “Our government remains committed to a respectful bargaining process that is in line with our fiscal plan and continues to support student achievement,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said in a statement Sunday, adding it was “disappointing that local talks between OSSTF and the Durham District School Board have broken down.”
Students in Durham also weighed in on the weekend, appealing to all three sides to come to a resolution as soon as possible to avoid a strike.
“Believe it or not, we want to stay in school. We want to keep learning, earning those credits and we want to graduate,” says a letter that student leaders at Pickering’s Pine Ridge Secondary School sent to the school board, the OSSTF, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Sandals.
Cameron Penn, a Grade 12 student leader bound for the University of Ottawa in the fall, is concerned, like many of his peers, that a strike could require time lost to be made up in the summer, possibly resulting in the loss of summer jobs.
“Another thing is all our students worked very hard to plan numerous events for our school, which could be cancelled,” he says.
“All these events that students worked on, for our community and for charities, could be cancelled and that would be a tragedy.”
Penn, 17, says historically, labour disputes have left students feeling ignored and used for leverage.
“We believe the whole point is to educate the students, and the fact that no one was asking us how we felt, we sort of felt left behind,” he says.
“We know that you care about the students, so it’s time to show it,” says the letter. “There are no reasons which justify the interruption of our education.”
But Barrett said the last decade of contract negotiations has been difficult, and that the last time around, when some conditions were imposed on teachers and boards, “nobody was happy . . . there were certain frameworks in that agreement that were not acceptable to the school boards. Certainly, we’re looking for adjustments to some of those elements we were never quite happy about.”
And while he agreed the new system is complex, he acknowledged that a recent pay increase for Toronto police — which raised eyebrows among many teachers who expressed their displeasure on social media — has not helped matters.
The four-year police contract, overwhelmingly ratified by members of the Toronto Police Association last week, includes a cumulative pay increase of 8.64 per cent.
“It’s very, very difficult to take the premise of fiscal responsibility and then expect it to be at the hands of a few . . . (the police raise) was a very difficult premise to swallow and I understand the angst.”
Paul Axelrod, a professor in the faculty of education at York University, agreed.
“The imposition of salary freezes by the province, and the apparent desire to remove class size ceilings in a time when the government appears to have spent irresponsibly on ehealth, ORNGE, and the power plants — these issues have not been forgotten despite the last election — means that employees in the public sector, like teachers, are not likely to be passive in current and upcoming negotiations,” he said.
“Clearly, the large provincial deficit hovers over all of this, but government is still spending in selected areas. The sector is asking why education shouldn’t be one of these priorities.
“I think it will be tough going in the coming months.” With files from Tamara Khandaker