The Halton District School Board is facing a potential teachers’ strike in April if contract negotiations are not advanced.
An announcement was made over the weekend by Paul Elliot, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), at an annual address to union members. Elliot named Halton as one of seven districts facing a “full withdrawal of services.”
OSSTF Vice-President Harvey Bischof told the Champion it’s more about how long it has taken to set up meetings with the board than the issues themselves.
“The movement has been exceptionally slow so we are increasing pressure to try and get the employer to sit down and talk with us,” said Bischof.
The roughly 2,000 teachers who are employed by the Halton District School Board (HDSB) have been without a contract since August 2014. They are joined by teachers in the Peel, Durham, Kitchener/Waterloo, Ottawa, Sudbury and Thunder Bay districts.
Marnie Denton, communications manager for the HDSB, said there have been two meetings set to begin negotiations – March 25 and April 1.
But considering the contracts expired in August, Bischof said be believes the board must demonstrate a greater willingness to sit with their employees to reach a suitable agreement.
“We are over six months beyond the expiry of the collective agreement. If it took this long to even get to the table to negotiate, that doesn’t make the prospect of coming to an agreement look very good,” he said.
Aside from confirming the dates of the meetings, the HDSB wasn’t available to comment.
The Ministry of Education said in a statement that the Province “remains focused on achieving a negotiated settlement and keeping the details of the discussions at the central bargaining table.”
Bischof told the Champion that he did not want to negotiate through the media and could not discuss specific issues, but according to the transcript of Elliott’s speech, teachers want improvements in working conditions and compensation. “And we’re not talking about improvements that we pay for ourselves through efficiencies and job losses, but real improvements that reflect a tangible appreciation on the part of the government and the school boards for the value and the significance of the work we do."
The union has asked for a conciliator to help resolve the dispute, a move that is mandatory before a strike is called. But according to Bischof, it does not necessarily mean one will happen.
If teachers do decide to strike, the striking members would receive 75 per cent of their pay, paid for by a 3- to 5-per cent levy on the paycheques of non-striking teachers, said Bischof.
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