Thousands of teachers went ahead with a planned rally outside Queen’s Park today, despite recent concessions from the government on increased class sizes and mandatory e-learning.
The rally was attended by members of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and the Association of Franco-Ontarian Teachers (AEFO), who are both holding province-wide strikes. Members of the Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers’ Federation are holding rotating strikes in nine boards, including the Toronto District School Board, and are also in attendance.
The joint job action went ahead despite calls from Education Minister Stephen Lecce for their cancellation in light of his government’s willingness to soften its position on a number of major points of contention at the bargaining table.
Lecce said earlier this week that the government would keep average high school class sizes at 23, which would be up slightly from last year’s average of 22 but would be a far cry from the province’s original proposal of 28. He also said that the government would let parents opt out of new e-learning courses that he previously said would be mandatory.
Elementary class sizes from grades four to eight would still increase by one student each. Lecce has also refused to budge on compensation and continues to say that the government will not award teachers with a pay increase exceeding one per cent per year, which is well below the rate of inflation.
During Question Period at the Queen’s Park on Thursday, Lecce said that his government has offered all four of Ontario’s teacher unions a “positive plan” aimed at keeping the parties at the table.
“Today the teacher union leaders opted to strike instead of negotiating and I find that really unfair to parents, who would have thought the parties would get to the table and focus on driving a deal that is good for workers, good for teachers but of course good for the students of this province,” he said.
Unions express skepticism around government proposal
While the province’s four teachers unions have expressed optimism around the government’s decision to backtrack on some of its most contentious proposals, they have continued to say that the quality of education in the province will be impacted negatively by the cuts that remain on the table.
Speaking with CP24 on Thursday, the president of the Toronto chapter of OSSTF said that her union estimates that the increase in average class sizes to 23 will still result in the elimination of 275 teaching jobs in the city.
“Each of those teachers teaches six courses so that is over 1,400 classes and courses disappearing from schools across Toronto,” Leslie Wolf said. “We are here today to say to Minister Lecce and to Premier Ford that what we said a year ago still holds and that is that there is no need to cut education funding. No cuts means no cuts.”
The province is currently negotiating with OECTA but is not engaged in any talks with the other three teacher unions.
“We are not teaching widgets here. This is not an industry. Education is not a business. Yes, you have to have an adequate business model. No one is saying spend like a drunken sailor but at the same time being fiscally responsible doesn’t mean that you slash and burn the system,” the president of OECTA’s Toronto chapter, Gillian Vivona, told CP24 at Monday’s rally. “What I hope is that the government will see the error of their way and that they will see the determination of all these people here.”
15,000 expected to attend rally
An estimated 15,000 people were expected to attend today’s rally at Queen’s Park, which is scheduled to begin at around 9:30 a.m.
The rally comes on the heels of a similar demonstration outside the provincial legislature on Feb. 21.
Three of the province’s four teachers unions will be participating in today’s rally with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario as the lone holdout.
That union has put its rotating strikes on hold but has said that it plans to escalate to the next phase of its job action campaign on March 9 if they are still without a deal.
Speaking with CP24 outside Queen’s Park on Thursday morning, one of the teachers participating in the rally accused Lecce of using the compensation issue as a “smokescreen” to disguise cuts to the education system.
“It is a smokescreen for the public to think that we are just greedy teachers and it is just about the money when it is absolutely not,” June Kanitz said. “We got into the profession for altruistic reasons. We feel that we are good at our jobs and we want to educate the future of our society.”
