The province’s public high school teachers have decided to hold a “day of political protest” next Wednesday if the government doesn’t repeal Bill 115 and suspend contracts forced on teachers.
“Essentially we had talked about this as being a possibility before, the government had an opportunity to avoid this, we’ve been saying all along, we want the opportunity to bargain,” said OSSTF District 9 president Jeff Brosseau, who represents Windsor and Essex County and attended a day-long meeting in Toronto Wednesday.
“The minister said she’ll repeal the bill, we hope she’ll repeal it sooner. But in addition to that get rid of the contract that’s just been imposed on us and allow us to actually bargain.”
The OSSTF decided on the action to protest the government’s “imposition of working conditions and the loss of the democratic right to freely bargain collective agreements with employers.”
Brosseau said the contracts imposed on boards fail to meet localized concerns.
“Through this whole process it’s been just those big-ticket items and there’s been no opportunity to talk about any local issues across the province,” said Brosseau.
Teachers will use the day of protests to picket outside Liberal or Progressive Conservative MPP offices or school board offices.
“OSSTF members have told their local and provincial leadership that should the minister of education impose working conditions on them, removing their ability to have the union engage in free collective bargaining on their behalf, that they would refuse to engage in voluntary and extracurricular activities,” OSSTF president Ken Coran said in a news release Wednesday night.
“They further voted in favour of a day of action in protest
