Ontario, Catholic teachers reach deal

Agreements now in place for all unions in province

The government and Ontario’s Catholic teachers have reached a tentative agreement — meaning there are now deals in place for all educator unions in the province, and no mass strikes for the next three years.

Teachers will vote online March 26 and 27 on the deal, which was reached after more than 50 bargaining sessions over 19 months.

While details have yet to be released, salary increases and other outstanding issues will be sent to binding arbitration.

“There are some parallels to other deals — there are process pieces in order to deal with some of the items (that are) monetary, and the issues that we’ve been identifying all along around supports” for teachers and students, said René Jansen in de Wal, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA).

“There are a number of very helpful things around that, and health and safety. Safety was a big focus for our members as well.”

At Queen’s Park, Education Minister Stephen Lecce noted this was the only round of bargaining since 2008 in which deals were signed with all four teachers’ unions with no job actions.

“For the first time in nearly a generation, Ontario’s government has successfully negotiated agreements with all of the provinces teacher unions, thereby averting strikes or withdrawal of services over the next three years,” Lecce told reporters on Tuesday morning.

“I think all parties can have a sense of relief that their members, and our kids, are going to be staying in school.”

OECTA was the last teachers’ union to come to an agreement with the province and school boards, after the larger and more powerful public elementary and secondary teacher unions did last fall.

They too sent some bargaining issues to arbitration.

“I think our table may have had some more challenges, and we also had different issues on the table,” Jansen in de Wal said.

“We got down to real bargaining this last little while, and we just kept pushing,” he said, adding the deal was signed off on about half an hour before Lecce spoke.

The tentative deal covers more than 36,500 full-time teachers.

Patrick Daly, who heads the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, was pleased with the deal and said the arbitration option was “an important piece” of getting it.

“Negotiations can be highly complex, and are often long journeys, but I think the key is to provide stability in the system, so we are very happy with that,” Daly said.

Catholic boards will vote to ratify the agreement on April 2.

Last month, the province reached a settlement with the smallest of the four teacher unions, Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), which represents about 10,000 French-board teachers.

After reaching its deal, AEFO pledged not to strike during negotiations with individual boards — which follow provincial ones and deal with non-monetary, local matters — but Jansen in de Wal would not say if he made the same promise.

The province’s education support staff, represented by the teacher unions or the Canadian Union of Public Employees or the Ontario Council of Educational Workers, also have deals.

The Education Workers’ Alliance of Ontario remains at the bargaining table.