Last September at the Labour Day Picnic in Riverside Park, there were already signs that it was going to be a long year at the province’s schools. The contract with all four teachers’ unions in Ontario had expired, and the Ontario government was in no mood to approve new spending or pay raises for teachers and other school workers employed at our Catholic and separate public schools. That was only the beginning. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #224 – It’s Been a Long School Year…”
Nearly eight months after their contract expired, and after who knows how many lost hours in the classroom due to rotating strikes, the Ontario government has closed its fourth and final deal with the teachers’ unions. With a month’s time, a year of labour strife at Ontario’s schools has come to an end with a tentative deal with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF). Continue reading “A Year of Labour Strife Concludes with a Deal for OSSTF”
It turns out that the global pandemic has become great news for the Ontario government looking to end a school year of labour strife with workers and teachers. The Ministry of Education has secured a tentative deal with the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), which is the third of four teachers’ unions to end their job action with a new contract. Continue reading “Then There Was One: AEFO Reaches a Deal with the Ontario Government”
For the second time in as many weeks, the Government of Ontario has announced that they’ve reached a deal with a teachers union. This time, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has reached a tentative agreement with the government, which means that the 83,000 teachers that the ETFO represents will be back to work without further labour disruption once the COVID-19 crisis has passed. Continue reading “Ontario Government Secures Deal With Second Teachers’ Union”
After six months of rising tensions with all four of Ontario’s teachers unions, the Provincial government can now take some comfort that they’ve solved 25 per cent of the problem. The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) has reached a tentative deal with the Ontario government, and the president of the Wellington unit looks forward to hanging up his picket sign. Continue reading “Local Catholic Teachers Feel Good About Having a Deal”
In a snap press conference held Tuesday afternoon, Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced that the government is backing off key demands for Ontario’s teachers including increased class sizes and e-learning requirements. The move puts the ball back in the court of the teachers’ unions less than 48 hours before another province-wide strike by Ontario’s Catholic school teachers. Continue reading “Lecce Backs Down on Key Demands From Teachers”
Nearly 200,000 teachers in 72 school boards spent their Friday on the picket line instead of in the classroom, effectively shutting down nearly 5,000 schools in Ontario, and keeping nearly two million students at home. It was the biggest job action by Ontario teachers since 1997, and it was a further escalation in the labour face-off between teachers and the Government of Ontario that seems unlikely to end any time soon. Continue reading “Guelph Teachers Take Part in Province-Wide One Day Strike”
After weeks of separate, rotating one-day strike actions, Ontario’s four teachers’ unions are now combining their efforts for a one-day, province-wide walkout that will affect all schools – elementary, high, Catholic and French – and about two million students in total. For the first time in over 20 years, schools in Ontario will be empty because of labour action by teachers. Continue reading “Teachers Across Ontario Co-ordinating Province-Wide One Day Strike”
It’s a new year, but Guelph Member of Provincial Parliament Mike Schreiner is dealing with some of the same old issues. This past Thursday on Open Sources Guelph, Schreiner talked about the rotating teachers’ strikes, hyper-partisanship, transit needs, and more Queen’s Park cronyism, which shows it’s been a busy year after just one month, and the legislature hasn’t even sat for a session in 2020. Continue reading “Schreiner Talks About Teachers and Transit on Open Sources”
Another week, another day of strike action by Ontario teachers, but this time the union walking the picket lines was different. Here in Guelph, and around Ontario, the teachers of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) took part in a one-day, province-wide strike to register their concern about the future of students as the impasse in negotiations with the Province continues. Continue reading “Catholic Teachers Join the Picket Lines in One-Day Strike”
Guelph Politico 