Strike vote looming for Windsor-Essex public teachers

Teachers across Windsor-Essex are headed for a strike vote as their union looks for leverage in the midst of contract negotiations that have dragged on for a year.

Mario Spagnuolo, president of the Greater Essex Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said strike action could range from work-to-rule protocols to an all-out work stoppage.

“For kids, parents, education workers, it’s the last thing that we would want to do,” said Spagnuolo, who represents 1,500 local public elementary school teachers.

“We take it very seriously when we move in that direction. If we were to go in that direction it would be with plenty of notice so that parents could prepare and arrange child care and things like that.”

In a statement issued this week, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) said there has been a “lack of sufficient progress being made at the central bargaining table” with the provincial government.

ETFO’s collective agreements expired last August. The union, which represents 83,000 public teachers, early childhood educators, and support personnel across Ontario, said it will hold in-person strike votes from mid-September to mid-October. Spagnuolo said local meeting dates have not been set.

“It will be varied across the province,” he said. “It’s a provincial strike vote, which means it has to take place in every single area of the province, every single school board.”

The union and the province are still far apart on a range of issues including pay increases, class sizes, and classroom support. EFTO accuses the government of refusing to “meaningfully engage” in discussions.

The Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) has also said it will hold strike votes in the fall.

The province’s four major teachers unions started negotiations with the government last summer. With only a few weeks to go before the start of the next school year, none of them appear to be close to reaching a deal.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce has criticized the union call for strike votes, saying “our government has been bargaining in good faith.”

He wrote in a statement this week that the teachers’ unions have rejected private mediation to reach deals.

“Threatening another strike and creating anxiety for parents and students just weeks before the start of the school year is unnecessary and unfair,” said Lecce.

Spagnuolo said the union and its members are aware of the potential consequences a strike could have on parents and children.

“That was one of the reasons we didn’t even consider strike votes last year, because we were trying to bargain in good faith knowing that parents and children had been disrupted throughout the pandemic,” he said.

“Teachers were pivoting back and forth for two years from virtual to in-person. So we were trying to give the system one year of normalcy. So we bargained in good faith and kept things as calm as possible.”

If union members do provide the mandate, Spagnuolo said strike action could follow quickly.

“That could include a work-to-rule, which could be administrative in nature,” said Spagnuolo. “Or it could move all the way to a full withdrawal of services.

“Typically, ETFO has used the strategy of moving to work-to-rule. But it’s up to the democratic process on what the next steps would be.”

twilhelm@postmedia.com

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