Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced today that the province has reached a tentative central agreement with public elementary teachers and urged remaining unions to come to the table.
“I am pleased to announce that we have reached a tentative central agreement with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO),” Lecce said in a statement released to media. “This agreement brings us one step closer to ensuring there will be no provincewide job actions or strikes in all English-language public schools for the next three years.”
This agreement applies to more than 59,000 of ETFO’s members, including public elementary teachers and occasional teachers.
“Our youngest learners in elementary schools need consistency in their lives,” Lecce added. “Our priority is to ensure children remain in class without disruption, with a focus on going ‘back to basics’ so students can master reading, writing and math skills.”
ETFO President Karen Brown was also pleased with the tentative agreement that came after more than a year of central bargaining, the longest in ETFO’s history.
“After 14 months of central bargaining, we’re pleased to be able to bring forward a tentative agreement to our teacher and occasional teacher members that protects their collective agreement entitlements and also addresses key bargaining goals,” Brown stated. “This has been the longest round of central bargaining in ETFO’s history, but we persisted.”
Brown says the focus was on “getting government cuts off the table” and on “addressing members’ working conditions, which are students’ learning conditions”.
Details of the agreement will be shared with ETFO teacher and occasional teacher members on Thursday, November 23, after a meeting with their local presidents and chief negotiators. A ratification vote is being scheduled, details of which will be shared with members once they are confirmed.
Meanwhile the Lecce urged “the remaining teachers’ unions to end the delay and come to the table and sign an agreement that ensures every child in Ontario can learn without the threat of strikes over the next three years”.
“The time is now to get this done,” Lecce’s statement read.
A previous agreement was reached with ETFO education workers in October. Additionally, an agreement on a process with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) teachers and education workers ensures no strikes throughout the school year. the province also has central agreements with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Ontario Council of Educational Workers (OCEW).
