KAWARTHA LAKES-All four Ontario teacher’s unions will hold a one-day strike next week.
On Friday, February 21, elementary and secondary teachers and education workers represented by the four major education unions in Ontario will participate in a one-day walkout across the province.
The walk-out includes members of the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO).
This is the first time since the political protest of 1997 that teachers and education workers from Ontario’s main education affiliates will all be out of their classrooms on the same day according to union officials.
Nearly 200,000 teachers and education workers will strike across 72 school boards, affecting nearly 5,000 schools across the province in another escalation of their protest of the “government funding cuts to education”.
“Educators in every school board will not stay silent as the Ford government proceeds to decimate our publicly funded education system,” says ETFO President Sam Hammond. “Our unions and members helped build Ontario’s world-class education system. By not seriously addressing the issues critical to students and student learning, the Ford government has made a sham of contract talks over the last seven months.”
“It is now evident that the Ford government’s agenda is entirely ideological and not at all concerned with providing quality education,” says OSSTF/FEESO President Harvey Bischof. “They are pulling resources out of the public education system and, with schemes like mandatory e-learning, laying the groundwork for private interests to profit from our students’ education. We are heartened that so many parents are standing with us against the dismantling of Ontario’s public education system.”
The Ministry of Education has not yet commented on this new strike action.
Ontario teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31st 2019.
Among the key issues are compensation, class sizes, e-learning, full-day kindergarten and special education funding. .
The government has been providing parents with up to $60 for each day their child is out of school due to job action.
