- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,187
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
Ontario’s public elementary teachers will step up their work-to-rule campaign on Monday in their battle with the province over stalled contract talks, even as Catholic and public high school teachers ratified their deals on central issues.
A spokeswoman for the Elementary School Teachers Federation of Ontario says the union’s members are also threatening to begin rotating strikes in October if the province doesn’t return to the bargaining table. Monday’s job action is expected to include teachers not updating classroom websites or blogs, withholding comments from fall report cards and wearing “solidarity colours” on what it’s calling “Wynne Wednesdays.”
Elementary teachers are already refusing to attend meet-the-teacher nights, book field trips, add comments to report cards, distribute administration handouts to students or answer emails from administration outside school hours.
ETFO president Sam Hammond warned earlier this week of the stepped up action “in the coming days” after the province and the Ontario Public School Boards Association walked away from provincial-level negotiations. The elementary teachers had been offered a deal similar to that given to the province’s Catholic teachers and public high school teachers in August.
“This will be administrative in nature,” a union spokesperson said Friday. “We are not releasing any details of that action until we have had an opportunity to talk with our 78,000 members.”
Jennifer Adams, director of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, said the board is still trying to determine how the ETFO sanctions would affect schools. “We’ve been looking at what they’re planning and our priority continues to be student safety.”
The Ontario government maintains that a deal is reachable.
“It is disappointing to hear that ETFO is escalating job action and that the withdrawal of services will further disrupt students’ learning in the classroom,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said in a statement. “We are confident that an agreement can be reached within the parameters presented to ETFO and we are prepared to resume discussions on that basis.”
ETFO now stands alone as the only teachers’ union without at least a tentative agreement.
On Friday, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, which represents Catholic elementary and high school teachers, and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, representing public high school teachers, announced they had ratified their respective central agreements.
Those agreements on central items such as salaries and prep times, paves the way for union locals to begin negotiating with individual boards on local issues.
“Our members may have ratified this deal,” OSSTF President Paul Elliott said in a statement. “But they remain frustrated and angry that the school boards of this province, through OPSBA, were so brazenly determined to gut our collective agreements and to attack our working conditions.”
Also this week, Ontario’s French-language teachers reached a tentative deal with the province for its 10,000 members, who teach in both the Catholic and public systems. The tentative deal averted a planned work-to-rule in Ontario’s French-language school.
So far, the elementary teachers’ labour disruption has had minimal effect on schools. Several parents interviewed at Hopewell Avenue Public School on Friday said they hadn’t noticed any differences because of the teacher work-to-rule campaign.
Kim Elmslie, whose daughter Ella is in Grade 1, said the teacher has sent lots of notes and emails to parents about everything from what’s happening in class to reminders to put labels on the children’s clothes. “I feel we’ve had lots of communication.”
As for the cancellation of field trips, the kids in her upper-middle class neighbourhood probably go on lots of fun and educational outings with their parents already, she said. “It might hit harder in areas where (families) are more economically disadvantaged.”
Elmslie doesn’t know much about what issues are behind the dispute. “Didn’t it have to do with sick time? Overtime?” she guessed. “I have to admit it’s not that clear what the issues are. “
Still, Elmslie said she’s “on the side of the teachers. You have to be pretty committed to be a teacher. They’re pretty dedicated to their students.”
– With files from Jacquie Miller and The Canadian Press
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
A spokeswoman for the Elementary School Teachers Federation of Ontario says the union’s members are also threatening to begin rotating strikes in October if the province doesn’t return to the bargaining table. Monday’s job action is expected to include teachers not updating classroom websites or blogs, withholding comments from fall report cards and wearing “solidarity colours” on what it’s calling “Wynne Wednesdays.”
Elementary teachers are already refusing to attend meet-the-teacher nights, book field trips, add comments to report cards, distribute administration handouts to students or answer emails from administration outside school hours.
ETFO president Sam Hammond warned earlier this week of the stepped up action “in the coming days” after the province and the Ontario Public School Boards Association walked away from provincial-level negotiations. The elementary teachers had been offered a deal similar to that given to the province’s Catholic teachers and public high school teachers in August.
“This will be administrative in nature,” a union spokesperson said Friday. “We are not releasing any details of that action until we have had an opportunity to talk with our 78,000 members.”
Jennifer Adams, director of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, said the board is still trying to determine how the ETFO sanctions would affect schools. “We’ve been looking at what they’re planning and our priority continues to be student safety.”
The Ontario government maintains that a deal is reachable.
“It is disappointing to hear that ETFO is escalating job action and that the withdrawal of services will further disrupt students’ learning in the classroom,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said in a statement. “We are confident that an agreement can be reached within the parameters presented to ETFO and we are prepared to resume discussions on that basis.”
ETFO now stands alone as the only teachers’ union without at least a tentative agreement.
On Friday, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, which represents Catholic elementary and high school teachers, and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, representing public high school teachers, announced they had ratified their respective central agreements.
Those agreements on central items such as salaries and prep times, paves the way for union locals to begin negotiating with individual boards on local issues.
“Our members may have ratified this deal,” OSSTF President Paul Elliott said in a statement. “But they remain frustrated and angry that the school boards of this province, through OPSBA, were so brazenly determined to gut our collective agreements and to attack our working conditions.”
Also this week, Ontario’s French-language teachers reached a tentative deal with the province for its 10,000 members, who teach in both the Catholic and public systems. The tentative deal averted a planned work-to-rule in Ontario’s French-language school.
So far, the elementary teachers’ labour disruption has had minimal effect on schools. Several parents interviewed at Hopewell Avenue Public School on Friday said they hadn’t noticed any differences because of the teacher work-to-rule campaign.
Kim Elmslie, whose daughter Ella is in Grade 1, said the teacher has sent lots of notes and emails to parents about everything from what’s happening in class to reminders to put labels on the children’s clothes. “I feel we’ve had lots of communication.”
As for the cancellation of field trips, the kids in her upper-middle class neighbourhood probably go on lots of fun and educational outings with their parents already, she said. “It might hit harder in areas where (families) are more economically disadvantaged.”
Elmslie doesn’t know much about what issues are behind the dispute. “Didn’t it have to do with sick time? Overtime?” she guessed. “I have to admit it’s not that clear what the issues are. “
Still, Elmslie said she’s “on the side of the teachers. You have to be pretty committed to be a teacher. They’re pretty dedicated to their students.”
– With files from Jacquie Miller and The Canadian Press
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
