Teachers’ union urges province to resume talks

Ontario elementary teachers won’t escalate their work-to-rule — yet — and their union is urging the government and school boards to return to bargaining this week.

But Education Minister Liz Sandals said the offer on the table for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is much the same as the tentative deals reached by two other teacher unions — deals that do not include changes to class size or prep time, two key concerns for ETFO. If the union “is prepared to discuss how to make the current offer and framework work, we are ready to continue discussion on that basis,” she said.

“We offered a complete settlement package, which includes a number of things the ETFO explicitly asked for . . . We’re certainly willing to discuss where it needs to be a little bit different (from the other deals),” she said.

Sam Hammond, president of ETFO, said his executive will discuss this week how to escalate the union’s current work-to-rule, but did not have any timeline as to when it might be put into play and said it will depend on how soon talks resume after breaking off “abruptly” last Friday.

He said his union can’t accept the same deal as high school teachers because there are issues “unique to students who are 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old and up to Grade 8 that need to be addressed.”

Meanwhile, the union representing the province’s 10,000 teachers in French public schools announced it has walked away from talks after the government and school boards tabled an “unacceptable offer” it said is not comparable to the tentative deals struck with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.

However, Carol Jolin, president of the French teachers’ union, AEFO, said talks will resume later this week after “stepping back from the table and reviewing our options and reviewing how things are going.” The French teachers are set to begin a work-to-rule later this week.

Hammond said the work-to-rule by his 76,000 members will continue as is, for now, which is largely administrative but also bans teachers from planning field trips or attending meet-the-teacher nights. Extracurricular activities won’t be affected for now — a job action that is always unpopular with parents and students and would cost the union public support. At Queen’s Park, government insiders say they believe ETFO is losing the public-relations battle by refusing to accept a deal that other unions deemed fair.

Premier Kathleen Wynne told reporters earlier Monday “the concern that I have” is that elementary students may see “some disruption” at their schools.