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In hopes of avoiding strikes this fall, Education Minister Stephen Lecce is increasing the pressure on other teacher unions to join a pact that would see contract talks continue until Oct. 27 and send outstanding issues to binding arbitration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the win-win outcome we believe will benefit every child,\u201d Lecce said Monday in Thornhill in another bid to convince unions representing elementary, Catholic and French-language educators to get on board with the concept.<\/p>\n
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers\u2019 Federation (OSSTF) tentatively agreed to it Friday and the union\u2019s 60,000 members will vote on it next month.<\/p>\n
Lecce\u2019s appeal \u2014 aimed at building public support for the idea \u2014 came after the other unions quickly rejected the approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cBinding arbitration would all but guarantee that the key issues we have brought forward at our respective bargaining tables, which are critical to learning and working conditions in our schools, would not be addressed,\u201d the unions said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers\u2019 Association, the Elementary Teachers\u2019 Federation of Ontario and AEFO, representing French-language teachers, warned that agreeing to arbitration this far in advance would limit the opportunity for \u201cmeaningful local bargaining\u201d with school boards.<\/p>\n
The president of the Catholic association scolded Lecce for his remarks Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatholic teachers would appreciate if Minister Lecce and the Ford Conservative government did more talking at the bargaining table, and less talking in the media,\u201d said Ren\u00e9 Jansen in de Wal.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur association has been bargaining for almost 15 months, with the goal of realizing a fair, negotiated collective agreement that supports all students, educators and families,\u201d the union president added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn more than 450 days since Catholic teachers filed notice to bargain, we have been given 30 meetings \u2014 an average of two per month \u2014 despite our repeated offers and requests for more days. And we still have not finalized the scope of central items to be bargained.\u201d<\/p>\n
The association\u2019s next bargaining dates are in September and members will hold a strike vote Oct. 18 and 19.<\/p>\n
The elementary teachers union, which is in bargaining Tuesday, declined to comment on the minister\u2019s push for a no-strike deal.<\/p>\n
Lecce remained optimistic during an appearance at the new E.J. Sand Public School, where he detailed new supports for students this fall, including almost 2,000 new teachers to help with math and writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to meeting with all education unions so we can sign a deal,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cI\u2019m asking our partners in the teacher unions to work with us to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lecce\u2019s move follows complaints from unions \u2014 which have been without contracts since last August \u2014 that bargaining with the government has been slow and sporadic, with little progress.<\/p>\n
OSSTF president Karen Littlewood said her union signed on to the plan because \u201cit does promise to break any impasse by bringing in a third-party arbitrator to seek a fair and just resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rob Ferguson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In hopes of avoiding strikes this fall, Education Minister Stephen Lecce is increasing the pressure on other teacher unions to join a pact that would see contract talks continue until Oct. 27 and send outstanding issues to binding arbitration. \u201cThis is the win-win outcome we believe will benefit every child,\u201d Lecce said Monday in Thornhill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184771,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184769\/revisions\/184771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}