The one day strike by public school teachers is in full swing.
Teachers have been picketing at schools across the Kenora district for much of the day as well as front of the Kenora constituency office of Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation President Harvey Bischof says they’ve seen nothing concrete at the bargaining table the past four days that addresses their concerns.
“Not a single proposal to protect class sizes. Not a single proposal to ensure students have access to the support staff that some of them require to be successful.”
He notes “A single day strike doesn’t come close to the kind of disruption that this government will reek on the education system if they are allowed to go forward with their destructive proposals.”
Bischof says the contract dispute has nothing to do with wages as suggested by the Education Minister.
He says their salary request will only cost the system $200,000, not the $1.5 billion suggested by Stephen Lecce.
However, Lecce says that’s not the case.
“”To assert it isn’t about compensation is preposterous, it is.”
Lecce says they are doing everything in their power to keep kids in school.
Speaking at Queen’s Park, Lecce stated “The objective of the government is to ensure children, the continuity of learning for children remains unimpeded. And what is regrettable is that, in respective of the party (NDP) or the premier, the one constant in my lifetime is that unions escalate against the government. That’s an unacceptable reality.”
Lecce says his government stands behind parents against escalation and they will work long and hard the next couple of days to ensure student learning isn’t impacted.
He stresses all MPP’s should be opposed to escalation that hurt our kids.
Lecce continues to push for an independent third-party mediator to be involved in bargaining.
