Catholic Schools Will Be Closed to Students Next Thursday

Friday, 28 February 2020 12:33

OECTA claims the Province is negotiating in bad faith, Education Minister Stephen Lecce disagrees and is calling on the union to come back to the bargaining table.

OXFORD COUNTY - Ontario English Catholic Teachers will be walking the picket lines next week.

They are doing a province wide strike on Thursday for both Elementary and Secondary schools.

Parents will need to make alternate care arrangements. Bargaining with the Province this week seems to have broken down completely.

OECTA President Liz Stuart says last week after the mediator called the bargaining parties back to the table, the Association suspended its planned rotating strikes as a sign of good faith and as a further demonstration of OECTA’s commitment to resolve these difficult negotiations.

“Instead of coming to the table with a plan to reach an agreement, the government continued to insist on its deep, permanent cuts. All the while, the Minister of Education has continued his attempts to mislead the public, by making baseless accusations against Catholic teachers and our Association, and by peddling the inaccurate claim that enhancements to our benefits plan is the sticking point in bargaining.”

OECTA is pursuing a bad faith bargaining complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board against the Crown. They claim the government is trying to conceal the results of their public consultation, education stakeholders and the public unequivocally reject any plan to increase class sizes.

Stuart says it was OECTA’s decision to pursue a bad-faith bargaining complaint against the Crown that was the key to finally unlocking the door and making the full education consultation documents available to members of the public, media, and opposition political parties, who can now apply to obtain a copy of the documents under the Tribunal Adjudicative Records Act.

“Our Association remains committed to the goal of reaching a fair agreement at the bargaining table. However, we cannot tolerate the Ford government’s penchant for misinformation and mistruth, nor its efforts to dismantle publicly funded education.”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the Government is not negotiating in bad faith and is calling the union to come back to the bargaining table.

"Strikes by the teachers' unions have resulted in millions of student days lost. This week, while in discussions with OECTA, we sought to get a deal that is in the best interests of our students through lower class sizes, 100% investment in special education and protecting full-day kindergarten. Yet again, we have seen obstruction to a deal because of an insistence by the union on enhancements to an already generous benefit package. Students deserve to be in class. That is why I am calling on OECTA to return to the table to get a deal."