May 5, 2015

ETFO TEACHERS AND OCCASIONAL TEACHERS TO TAKE STRIKE ACTION
AS OF MAY 11, 2015

Last night, ETFO provided notice to the Ontario Public School Boards' Association (OPSBA) that its teacher and occasional teacher members will be taking central strike action in 32 public school boards as of Monday, May 11, 2015.   

ETFO will not be providing details about the strike action on its public communication channels until all steward meetings called this week to discuss job action have taken place.

Under the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, ETFO is legally required to send notice to the Ontario Public School Boards' Association and the provincial government five days before starting central strike action.  ETFO can provide more than five days' notice, if it wishes.

ETFO members have been without a collective agreement since August 31, 2014. Central bargaining for teachers and occasional teachers stalled when OPSBA and the Liberal government tabled numerous demands, including: 
  • removing class size language from collective agreements, which would give school boards latitude to increase the number of students in elementary classrooms;
  • creating new system level positions that would increase the number of administrators in school boards; 
  • several measures proposed by OPSBA that would curtail teachers' ability to use their professional judgement in determining how to support student learning;
  • removing fair and transparent hiring practices.


ETFO's DECE/ESP/PSP Members Not on Strike


The central strike action involves only ETFO's 73, 000 teacher and occasional teacher members.  ETFO's 3,000 Designated Early Childhood Educator (DECE), Education Support Personnel (ESP) and Professional Support Personnel (PSP) members are not in a legal strike position at this time and will not be participating in the job action that starts on May 11.