New rules around Ontario bargaining being put to the test

Why are high school teachers suddenly on strike in Durham Region? Why are more walkouts looming across the province?

The Durham strike is the first public breakdown in a new process that was supposed to help Ontario public school boards hammer out fair deals with all their employee unions.

Here’s a primer on the latest labour turmoil. Two tiers, many tables In 2014 Ontario passed the School Board Collective Bargaining Act to tighten up a bargaining system that had been criticized as ad hoc and unclear. The new, formalized system involves two tiers of bargaining, with big-ticket items such as salary, benefits and paid leaves tackled centrally by provincewide unions and groups of school boards. These broad talks are known as “central bargaining” at the “central table” and the ministry of education is present.

But there’s more to a union contract than just big-ticket money items, and for issues such as unpaid leaves, teacher transfer policies and the use of occasional teachers, each local school board bargains with its own local union in “local bargaining” at local tables. Where talks stopped By Sunday, central talks had broken down at the central table between the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) and Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) However, early Monday, a mediator was able to call both sides back to try to re-ignite bargaining.

Locally, talks also had broken off between the Durham District School Board and its high school teachers, and the local union there has said it will not go back to work until its local issues have been resolved. Why these seven boards? Frustrated by the slow pace of central talks — the old contracts expired last August — the OSSTF recently decided to target seven school boards for possible strikes as a way to pressure boards and Queen’s Park. The choice of boards was made by the union’s provincial executive based on such factors as where union leaders were willing to lead strikes and which boards the provincial union could afford to support with strike pay — which for this job action is hefty. What’s the stumbling block? While bargaining takes place in pri- vate, there are hints talks are getting bogged down partly because Education Minister Liz Sandals has insisted there is no new money for raises because of the public-sector wage freeze. There’s also a proposal for an unpaid day off, as well as slower movement up the salary grid. Which other boards could strike? High school teachers at the Rainbow District School Board (Sudbury, Manitoulin) are slated to strike Monday if there is no deal by then.

In the following weeks, OSSTF locals also could walk off the job at public high schools in Halton, Peel, Waterloo Region, Ottawa-Carleton and Lakehead District (Thunder Bay).

Talks have hit a wall partly because Ontario insists there’s no new money for raises because of a public-sector wage freeze