Catholic teachers threaten to strike
Toronto elementary educators have been escalating work-to-rule sanctions for months
Toronto’s Catholic elementary teachers are threatening to strike Monday if there’s no tentative deal with the board.
Their union sent out a memo Tuesday night saying the board planned to deduct pay from some members for refusing to take part in testing for gifted students — something banned under the current work-to-rule — and also alerted members to the escalated job action that would target one or more schools to start.
The prospect of picket lines at schools — which only reopened last week after two weeks of online learning — prompted Education Minister Stephen Lecce to say “these teacher union strikes are an affront to the interests of children who deserve to be in school,” especially given the stresses kids have experienced during the pandemic. “On behalf of tens of thousands of families who seek stability as Ontario gets through the challenges of Omicron: Call off the strikes.”
For months, the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers union local, known as TECT, has been escalating long-standing work-to-rule sanctions, which include no extracurricular activities, parent-teacher meetings and only submitting bare-bones report cards, frustrating many parents.
A statement from the Toronto Catholic District School Board said the outstanding issues between the two sides include better managing the “serious issue” of absences, as well as assigning teachers to classes to reduce disruption in schools.
The Toronto local — one of just a few across the province yet to reach an agreement with their board — has been without a contract since 2019.
However, provincial deals, which are typically reached first because they deal with big-money items such as salary, were not ratified until 2020, and some were not reached until after the pandemic had already hit. Contracts with individual boards usually deal with more administrative-type issues.
“This is an incredibly difficult action for us to take,” said TECT president Julie Altomare-DiNunzio to the Star. “But we cannot ignore the board’s bullying tactics, repeated efforts to drag out negotiations, punitive actions against teachers engaged in lawful job action, and refusal to work together to reach a fair collective agreement.”
Altomare-DiNunzio said the union is “fighting for our students at the bargaining table, to maintain the current practices that ensure stability in the staffing process so there is consistency.” But board Chair Angela Kennedy said in a statement that “TECT is going on strike because the board is not agreeing to their proposals in respect of two issues. First, absenteeism continues to be a serious issue that impacts the classroom experience for students. The board has the right to address attendance issues to ensure that teachers are supported while also improving attendance at work. TECT wants to prevent the board from addressing these concerns.”
She also said the board “is responsible for ensuring that staffing levels and class assignments are managed in a way that reduces disruption to students. TECT wants to limit the manner in which the board determines these important issues, particularly during the commencement of the school year.”
Katie Piccininni, whose son is in Grade 8, said “it’s very unfortunate that it has come to this,” adding she can’t understand why Toronto Catholic elementary teachers have issues with the agreement, which is similar to the one ratified by their counterparts in high school.
Toronto mom Deb Hutton, whose younger daughter would be affected by a strike, said the news blindsided parents.
“If I could understand why teachers feel the need to go on strike, maybe I wouldn’t be so upset,” Hutton said. “From all I can tell, this is strictly about money and power — and it is not about my daughter, and it is not about the other children in the system. As a parent it just makes me so angry, and so sad at the same time.”
The Toronto local has been without a contract since 2019