A union representing 76,000 elementary school teachers and education professionals is lashing out at the province for making "destructive" demands that "single out" teachers.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario agreed to meet with the province last week to begin negotiations on a new contract for its members, but chose to walk away from the table after learning that the province was not willing to consider any counter-proposals, ETFO President Sam Hammond told reporters during a Thursday morning news conference.

Hammond added that the government's proposal included "wage freezes" and "compensation rollbacks".

"Real negotiations are about sitting down at a table to jointly and collectively solve problems," Hammond said. "We need to be able to explore all the options and if we are restricted to discussing only the government's proposal that is not in any means true negotiation."

ETFO negotiated a single contract for all of its members through a voluntary provincial bargaining process in 2004 and 2008, but chose to opt out of that process this time around because of the tone of negotiations, Hammond said.

The union will now turn over negotiations to individual bargaining units representing school teachers in 72 different school boards.

Those talks are scheduled to begin in June.

The province's contracts with elementary school teachers will expire at midnight on Aug 31.

"The minister invited us to participate in a voluntary bargaining process and I want to emphasize the word voluntary," Hammond said. "That process and the parameters the government has tabled are outside the legal framework for negotiations."

On Monday Education Minister Laurel Broten chastised the union for being unwilling to negotiate. She later sent a letter to all 72 school boards in the province urging them to participate in the provincial negotiating process, rather than waiting for local talks to begin in June.

"It is my strong preference that all federations remain at or return to the PDT (provincial discussion table)," Broten said in the letter.

On Thursday Hammond called Broten's comments "provocative" and "misleading".

"I ask the minister and I ask this premier is the process voluntary or is it mandatory? Which is it?" he said.