Teacher strikes: Are they illegal? Durham, Peel, Sudbury boards file labour relations board case
The Ontario Labour Relations Board is being asked to rule if the strikes by high school teachers in three boards are legal.
By: Kristin Rushowy Education Reporter,
Published on Tue May 12 2015
Three public boards hit by strikes by high school teachers are now striking back – calling the job action unlawful and launching a case with the Ontario Labour Relations Board to get students back to class.
“We’re calling on the OLRB to rule that the secondary teachers’ waged an unlawful strike to put pressure on the provincial negotiations” which is not allowed under new bargaining legislation, said Janet McDougald, chair of the Peel District School Board.
“This ruling would return Peel, Durham and Rainbow (Sudbury) students to their classrooms, where we know they can finish off the school year positively, without further disruption,” she said in a written release.
Teachers in Peel walked off the job last week, and those in Rainbow/Sudbury two weeks ago. Durham teachers, now in their fourth week of a strike, hit the picket lines April 20.
This round of bargaining, under new legislation, has the government, school boards’ associations and provincial unions bargaining centrally on costly items such as class size or salary, with union locals and school boards hammering out non-monetary items.”We’ve said, from the beginning, what we know is true: that provincial OSSTF (high school teachers’ union) is setting the agenda for local bargaining and that this local strike is part of their overall provincial strategy,” added McDougald.
“We’ve seen secondary teachers in each of the three boards protest issues being negotiated at the central table, particularly the central matter of class size. Our teachers need to know, and our parents and students need to know, that there is nothing we can do at our local table to impact class size decisions – nothing.”
Supervision and teacher autonomy have also been mentioned as strike issues, she added, and again they are to be dealt with centrally.
However, local union leaders have cited issues ranging from performance appraisals to personnel files as the reasons behind the strikes.
“If something is not dealt with over a period of 10 to 15 years, it’s a problem – especially around evaluations, and especially if they determine if someone is going to have a job or not have a job,” Paul Elliott, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, or OSSTF, has told the Star.
No central bargaining talks took place on Tuesday, amid the strikes and as province’s public elementary educators continue their work-to-rule.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario had briefly returned to central negotiations on Monday, but left talks an hour later saying the government and school boards’ had not changed their offer.
On Monday, elementary teachers also launched job action, refusing to take part in standardized testing in any way or prepare comments for June report cards.
School boards are saying it will be near impossible to run the yearly EQAO tests, which are administered later this month.
The head of the EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) says unless there is a strike, boards should proceed but the CEO acknowledged it will be “very difficult” without the co-operation of teachers.
“We’ll need to wait to see what happens,” said Bruce Rodrigues. However, he added, “we are expecting that on May 25, they should be ready to write.”
The tests given to students Grades 3 and 6 in reading, writing and math, consist of six, one-hour sessions that usually stretch over three days. They are scheduled to be held anytime between May 25 to June 5.
“Administratively, I don’t know how to do it” without teachers, said Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, adding that if cancelled, tracking student progress over the years will be affected.
Classroom teachers in Grades 3 and 6 prepare students for the tests and administer them, while other teachers are hired to mark them – all things they’ve been instructed by their union not to do.
(Grade 9 math assessment is to go ahead in all schools from May 28 to June 12, except in boards where secondary teachers are on strike. Grade 10 students wrote the mandatory literacy test back in March.)
This round of bargaining , driven by new legislation, has the provincial school boards’ associations, unions and the Ministry of Education trying to settle the big-money issues with individual school boards and union districts negotiating local items.
Hammond has said the union won’t accept changes proposed by the government and school boards’ regarding class size, control of prep time and a new hiring policy.
He has also said while pay is not a key issue, he will be seeking a raise because of cost-of-living increases.
Both Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals have repeatedly said there is no money for salary increases unless savings are found elsewhere.
Barrett, who is also chair of the Durham board, said the strike there is now in its fourth week and concerns are growing that the year could be lost.
At Queen’s Park, Sandals said she too is worried but noted none of the boards involved has applied to the Education Relations Commission to rule if the academic year is in jeopardy.
Local talks in Durham were held on Friday with the high school teachers’ union District 13, and future dates are expected. Peel is also expected to be back at the local bargaining table on Wednesday.