The Elementary School Teachers Federation of Ontario says it will take “central strike action” in 32 public school boards next week.
In a news release issued Tuesday morning, the union confirmed that it gave notice to the Ontario Public School Boards' Association on Monday night and will begin strike action on May 11.
The release said the ETFO will not provide details about the strike action until a series of meetings are held with the members this week, however a memo obtained by CTV News on Monday suggests that teachers will “begin strike action by the withdrawal of administrative services” and not by walking off the job entirely.
The 12-point bulletin, dated May 4, advises members not to perform a number of responsibilities, including preparing report card comments, undertaking EQAO testing with students, or conducting any reading, writing or mathematics assessments other than those that the teacher deems necessary to report on student progress.
In the news release issued by the ETFO, the union blames the Liberal government for bringing about labour action by demanding that class size restrictions be removed from collective agreements and attempting to curtail the freedom of teachers to use their own judgement in determining how to support student learning. The union also says that the province wants to “remove fair and transparent hiring practices” from the collective agreement.
Ontario elementary school teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Premier Kathleen Wynne said that while she is unsure of the exact details of the strike action, there has been no indication that students will be out of the classroom.
"What I understand is there has been some public discussion about administrative withdrawals of service," she said.
“I am not going to speculate on what may happen on Monday."
Wynne acknowledged that her government did anticipate some challenges with this round of negotiations.
"We knew this was going to be a tough round of bargaining... We said there wasn’t any new money for wages, there wasn’t any new money for benefits," she said.
"That’s a hard pill for public sector employees to swallow. I get that."
When asked about possible back-to-work legislation, Wynne said her government is committed to negotiating at the central table.
"I am intent on our folks working at the central table to get deals. That has to be our focus," she said.
Sam Hammond, president of the ETFO, said the union has not yet determined what course of action its members will take come Monday.
"We have committed to a process where we are going to inform our members across the province face-to-face in meetings this week and we will be confirming what steps we are taking late Thursday or Friday," Hammond told CP24.
"We have a number of options available to us under the legal process in this province. We are weighing all of those options... and we will move forward on Monday based on what we think is the best course of action."
Secondary school teachers are also without a contract and strikes are currently in effect at the Durham and Peel district school boards as well as the Rainbow District School Board in Sudbury.
Wynne said that processes are in place to ensure that post-secondary applications are not negatively impacted by the labour issues.
"The ministry has been in conversation with the boards about interim grades that have been submitted to colleges and universities so of course we don’t want kids to lose their year, of course we don’t want kids’ post-secondary to be jeopardized," she said.
"That is why we want them back in the class but as far as the students who have been out for a number of days, there has been a process whereby those grades were submitted so my expectation is that those futures would not be in jeopardy."
Education Minister Liz Sandals told reporters Tuesday that if a board feels as though the school year is in jeopardy, they can apply to the Education Relations Commission, an independent tribunal that advises the government about whether a strike is putting education at risk.
Sandals, however, says she does not believe that any of the boards are in a position to apply for a jeopardy ruling just yet.
"I think my takeaway from looking at the history is that there is no rule of thumb," she said.
"But we have not yet reached the point where they have traditionally have ruled jeopardy."
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