The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is the last union without a deal
With schools throughout the province closed due to the current pandemic, Ontario’s biggest teachers’ unions have been returning to the bargaining table to attempt to come to an end to months-long strike action.
The first union to reach a deal with the government was the Ontario Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) on March 12. Later that month, the Ontario government reached a tentative deal with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Additionally, the provincial government reached a deal with the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) – the union representing the province’s French teachers.
Details of these agreements remain confidential until they are ratified by each respective union.
On April 3, it was announced that the government had restarted talks with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) – the last union without a deal.
In a media statement after reaching a deal with ETFO, education minister Stephen Lecce said that the bargaining had been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, which “elevated the consciousness of the parties, elevated the reprehensibility of all of us in the education sector to work together and to do what’s right and put our students’ safety and our staffs’ safety first.”
In a report from The Canadian Press, University of Toronto professor Charles Pascal explains that the current COVID-19 crisis has impacted negotiations, with both parties taking on a more conciliatory tone.
Schools in Ontario will remain closed until at least May so it remains to be seen the impact that these deals will have on the province’s educational landscape. In the meantime, the provincial government has launched an online learning platform – which had been a point of contention with the unions – called ‘Learn at Home’.
