Education minister Stephen Lecce says Ontario and the secondary school teachers’ union have agreed on a process to avoid a strike. He says the tentative deal sets out a set period of time to continue bargaining in good faith. Leece's priority is to keep kids in the classrooms.
Lecce said if a negotiated agreement can’t be reached, the parties would enter into binding arbitration, which he describes as a fair and reasonable approach. He says he would like the same deal with other teachers’ unions. For him, he says it’s all about the kids.
“I now want to do this right across the board so we could enter the school year with a real sense of stability. These kids need to focus on academics. We need to get back to those basic foundational skills. In Ontario, our strategy is about keeping them in class, investing in front-line academic success, and emphasizing skills around reading, writing, and math."
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation bargaining unit, presidents, and chief negotiators have voted in favor of the process. They will now send it to the 60,000 members for a vote. Lecce says the offer has already been extended to the other three education sector unions, all of which have been bargaining this year. But those unions have said the process is not something they consider at this time, with two of them already calling for strike votes.