Teachers warned to brace for battle against province
Tories’ plan for health care sector mirrors its approach to education, says union president
Ontario’s public high school teachers will need to “fight tooth and nail” in this round of bargaining with the provincial government, says the president of their union.
Speaking to local leaders at their summer meeting in Toronto, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Karen Littlewood said, “I know the absolute last thing that anyone wants to hear right now is about how our fight continues, about all the efforts that are still needed.”
Littlewood went on to say that, “Yes, we are going to have to fight tooth and nail to protect our rights as workers — because we all deserve a good job with fair wages and decent benefits.”
The union, which represents 63,000 teachers and staff in schools, will also be pushing for “smaller class sizes and less online learning, for improved health and safety standards, and proper and equitable access to supports and services from the whole education team.”
However, in response, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a statement to the Star that “teacher unions should be fighting tooth and nail to keep kids in class for the entire year without interruption, with the full learning experience — including clubs and sports. Our government is unmoved from our mission — a stable, normal and more enjoyable school year that children in Ontario desperately need and deserve.”
Littlewood said current signals from the provincial government about privatizing the health care system mirror what is going on in education — in particular, the millions the government has spent on private tutoring to help students catch up from pandemic learning loss, including a recent $225-million fund going to parents to spend for outside support.
She said the government talks about stability, but the best way to ensure that is through proper funding, fully staffed schools as well as wage increases that reflect cost-ofliving.
Ontario teachers earn an average of $94,476.
All education union contracts expire at the end of August, and bargaining talks continue.
There is no job action planned for the fall.
In its offer to CUPE, the province has proposed a two per cent increase a year for four years for those earning less than $40,000, and a 1.25 per cent annual boost for those earning more than that.
CUPE is seeking the equivalent of an 11.7 per cent yearly wage boost, saying public sector wage restraint legislation led to one per cent yearly increases in the last contract, and that current inflation rates have driven up the cost of living.
But if Premier Doug Ford and Lecce “keep disrespecting education workers, they’re risking disruption to the school year,” said NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles.
“In my conversations with unions, there’s a desire for a balanced approach from government. They want respect, smaller class sizes and more supports for kids, and who doesn’t want that? Parents want it, too.”
Meanwhile, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president Karen Brown delivered a second speech to her members at their annual meeting,
“This is the moment that we find ourselves in, education sector collective agreements expiring as of Aug. 31, 2022, a government trying to buy the support of parents by promising more money in their pockets instead of in their child’s classroom. Not a good omen for what we are about to face,” she said.
“How this current government conducts itself during this round of bargaining will be a good litmus test for its ongoing commitment to public education.”
Brown, who did not allow reporters to watch her speech, provided a written copy that redacted some content for unknown reasons.
We are going to have to fight tooth and nail to protect our rights as workers — because we all deserve a good job with fair wages and decent benefits.
KAREN LITTLEWOOD OSSTF PRESIDENT, PICTURED