- World Teachers' Day October 5, 1998
- Yahoo Coverage of Teachers Strike
- Teachers' mood sombre
Today's vote in doubt as few appear to
like deal that offers low pay
Niagara's 1,000 public high school teachers are angry over a
proposed contract and may end up rejecting it a second time in
voting today.
Judging by the grim faces and shouting at Thursday's union
meeting, few teachers appear to be happy with the deal, even
though union representatives are urging it be accepted.
- Substitute teachers challenge Toronto teachers' contract
Toronto Substitute Teachers are seeking
to halt the implementation of the contract of the regular secondary school
teachers with the Toronto District School Board. That contract, negotiated in
October, denies substitute teachers their livelihood by mandating increased
on-call coverage of absent teachers by the regular teachers, rather than
employing substitute teachers qualified to teach the subject of the absent
teacher, as in the past.
- St. Catherines Teachers to vote on deal
Public board, union refuse to discuss
details of tentative offer which could
end labour dispute
- Renfrew Public High School Teachers Increase Pressure
Public high school teachers will turn up the
heat on the Renfrew District School Board starting Monday, November 30th.
Teachers announced today that beginning Monday, they will not be doing any
supervision of students other than in their own class rooms or teaching areas.
``The unprecedented action taken by the Renfrew District School Board at
their meeting last Monday of cutting teachers' salaries by 10%, only served to
heighten the tension that exists between this board and its high school
teachers,'' said local OSSTF President, Doug Reynolds. ``The action of three
trustees hiding behind conflict of interest rules to avoid their
responsibilities as trustees underscores the difficulties our negotiating team
has had in trying to achieve a fair settlement.''
- Elementary teachers ratify deal
Near North elementary school teachers have
ratified a collective agreement with the Near North District School Board.
The teachers voted 93.3 per cent in favour of the deal on Friday night. The
two-year agreement starts immediately.
Chief negotiator Margaret Taylor said pay equity was a key point in the
contract.
- Union recommends York teachers accept
deal
Peaceful classrooms return today in York region with
both elementary teachers and their students in their rightful places after a
mediator recommended a settlement.
Teachers have agreed to suspend their rotating strikes pending a vote
Sunday on the settlement, which the union recommended to its members
Thursday.
"Every teacher will be in the classroom (today), however, we will continue
our work to rule until we see the results of the vote," said Diana Tomlinson
of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.
- Teacher shortage crisis looming: report
Fears of mass teacher layoffs in Ontario have been
replaced by a much different crisis: a looming teacher shortage, the
profession's governing body warned Friday.
Quick action is needed to ensure key school programs can continue to be
offered, said the College of Teachers.
A combination of thousands of aging teachers taking early retirement
coupled with falling interest in the profession spells trouble for schools
across the province, the organization says.
- CNEWS Chat Blackboard battles
Many of Ontario's teachers have once again set up picket lines, less than a
year after striking over many of the same issues involved with the
government's Bill 160. Are the teachers fighting the good fight, or will they
find a hostile public if kids are forced to stay home? Are teachers just a
convenient target for Canada's education's woes? How should the burden of
education resources be divided among the government, parents and
educators? What do you think? Join the discussion.
- York Region Teachers release names of schools where teachers will
be on rotating strike, Friday, November 20
On Friday, November 20, teachers in
the following York Region public elementary schools will be picketing.
Teachers from all schools not on this list will be teaching.
SCHOOLS WHERE TEACHERS WILL BE PICKETING ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20:
Aldergrove; Armadale; Ballantrae; Coppard Glen; Deer Park; Highgate;
Jersey; Keswick; Lakeside; Milliken Mills; Mount Albert; Parkland;
R.L. Graham; Randall; W.J. Watson; Wilclay; William Berczy; and
the Vivian Outdoor Centre.
There will be a picket at the York Region Board of Education office
in Aurora.
- York Region Teachers Appalled By Board's Decision To Maintain The
Lock-out
``The York Region Board of Education's decision
to prolong the lock-out is disgraceful,'' says Phyllis Benedict, President of
the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO). ``This Board is
ignoring the concerns of parents, teachers and other concerned citizens. First
the Board bullied the teachers; now it is bullying the parents.
- Peel board, secondary teachers reach tentative agreement
t 4:00 am on Tuesday, November 17, the Peel
District School Board and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation
reached a tentative agreement. The two-year agreement is subject to
ratification by the teachers and the board.
Details of the tentative agreement remain confidential pending
ratification by both parties.
- Education panel releases report in 10
languages
An education panel appointed by Ontario's Tory
government released glossy summaries Thursday recommending more
rights for parents -- in 10 different languages.
The councils -- groups of parents, students, school staff and community
members -- advise principals and school boards on how schools should be
run.
Now, Ontario's Education Improvement Commission says they should
also have a say in choosing principals and in rating the performance of
principals, superintendents and directors of education.
- Commission deserves high marks for listening to parents and
teachers about school councils
``The Education Improvement Commission deserves
high marks for listening to parents and teachers about the role and function
that school councils should have,'' said Phyllis Benedict, President of the
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO).
``The Commission's key recommendation that school councils remain
advisory reflects the strong view across the province that parents and
community members want to have input into issues which affect the operation of
their local school, but do not want the full responsibility of decision-making
that more appropriately rests with school board and school personnel. This is
an important message to the provincial government,'' said Ms. Benedict.
- OECTA satisfied by EIC report
Ontario's Catholic teachers are satisfied that
the recommendations made in the report of the Education Improvement Commission
released today will make constructive contributions to Ontario education.
``We're pleased that the Commission listened to the recommendations of
teachers and note that the report addresses many of our concerns. We agree
that school councils play an important advisory role,'' says OECTA president
Marshall Jarvis. ``We believe that parents have a vital interest in the school
environment and should contribute to decision-making.'' He adds that he also
approves of the proposal to provide some training for members of school
councils, and urges the education ministry to provide funding for this.
A welcome recommendation is that teachers and other school board
employees be permitted to sit as parent representatives on school councils.
- Windsor Teachers' protest nears end
Students eager to resume extracurricular
activities once tentative deal ratified
Windsor, Ontario area students hope extracurricular activities will soon be restored
after secondary school teachers reached a tentative agreement
with the public board Tuesday.
Details of the deal, struck after an all-night bargaining session,
were not available.
About 20,000 students within the public and separate boards
have been deprived of extracurricular activities since the
beginning of the school year after teachers withdrew those
voluntary services when their contracts expired Aug. 31.
- Catholic trustees side with
government
The Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association sided
with the government and its revamped funding formula in appeals court Tuesday.
The association argued against its own teachers, who want the Catholic boards'
ability to collect taxes reinstated.
The association, which represents 29 boards and 600,000 students, said the new
funding formula is in the best interests of the parents and students. "There was an
embedded inequality in favour of the public system over the separate system,"
said lawyer John Murray, who represents the trustees.
- Ontario school principals organize
Rob Whetter, from the Peel District School Board,
has been elected the Ontario Principals' Council first president.
The council met Saturday in Toronto.
It was created after school principals and vice-principals in Ontario were
removed from teachers' unions by the Progressive Conservative
government's Bill 160, which radically changed numerous aspects of the
province's education system.
- Ontario government defends education bill
The Ontario government said Monday that the
province's Roman Catholic school boards have a constitutional right to
funding that matches that of public school boards, but that doesn't mean
they have a right to levy taxes.
The government was arguing in the Ontario Court of Appeal against a
ruling made in July by Ontario Court Judge Peter Cumming. That ruling
stated the Tory government's education legislation, Bill 160, violated the
constitutional right of the separate school boards to levy taxes.
- Government revises school funding budget
Parents of Ontario schoolchildren should find out
soon whether an estimated 600 schools will have to close after all,
following the release Friday of board-by-board funding hikes.
In total, the government will increase the $14-billion school system funding
by $298 million this year and $211 million a year after that.
Education Minister Dave Johnson says that's enough to ensure no schools
have to close because of government changes to how they are financed.
"This permanent change to the process . . . means that urban, rural and
suburban boards now have the time, resources and flexibility they need to
keep their boards open," Johnson said Friday.
- Government promise to cap class sizes misleads public: Catholic
teachers
A snapshot of class sizes in two Catholic school
boards shows that more than half the students are placed in classes larger
than those promised last spring by the provincial government. ``The minister
of education's promise that classes will be no larger than 22 in high school,
and 25 in elementary school, is meaningless,'' says Marshall Jarvis, president
of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA).
- Consider year-round schools, Johnson urges
Ontario's education minister wants school boards to
give serious consideration to a recommendation they keep schools open
year-long.
But Dave Johnson says the province isn't about to legislate year-round
classes at all Ontario schools.
- Bill 160 One Year Later: Ontario Principals' Council Emerges as New
Player on the Education Scene
- Year-round schooling to ease school crunch,
auditor suggests
Ontario's schools should experiment with year-round
schooling and introduce more semestered classes to squeeze more students
into existing buildings, the province's auditor said Tuesday.
Erik Peters says that could help cash-strapped boards find more money
for things like cleaning and maintenance.
- Keep emotion high in school ads, Tory
strategy memo says
With talk of marketing concepts and "brand
personality," it reads a bit like an ad man's pitch.
But the leaked document released Monday sketches out a public relations
strategy on education for the Ontario government, offering a glimpse behind
the scenes of a high-profile political battle.
The unsigned memo, slipped to the opposition New Democratic Party,
admits that many people believe the Conservatives' education changes have
been motivated by cost-cutting.
It advises an advertising campaign that emphasizes emotion over content
and that is subtle enough to stay off the public's "political propaganda
meter."
-
Students defy strike, run in
meet
St. Catharines principal leads charge for
athletes to compete in Hamilton
championship race
- Shut offices, not schools, government tells
boards
Ontario's school board officials should shut their own
offices before closing schools, Education Minister Dave Johnson said
Thursday.
That advice came on the day Toronto's public school board released a list
of 138 elementary and high schools slated to close -- including one
attended by Premier Mike Harris's Grade 8 son, Mike Jr.
- School closures - efficiency or more problems?
An Article by Phyllis Benedict, President of the
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario
- Teachers stepping up their fights
Education Minister Dave Johnson says there's no
need for him to intervene in the rotating one-day strikes being launched at
Ontario schools, even as some teachers' unions begin escalating their fights.
Public high school teachers in Brockville are ready to stop filling out report
cards as they raise the stakes in their fight with their school board while
teachers in Peterborough, Brighton, Cobourg and Bowmanville stage a
one-day strike today.
Public high school teachers were off the job Wednesday in Brantford,
Brant County and Haldimand-Norfolk.
-
Lockout threat pays off Windsor RC
board threatens lockout
RC high school teachers agree to teach a
full schedule -- for now
- Press release derails talks---Brockville Teachers To Strike Monday
Public high school teachers will hit the picket line Monday in a one-day
strike which will cancel classes for 14,000 students in the region.
Contract talks between the teachers and the Upper Canada District School
Board have stalled. The two sides had resumed negotiations Thursday and
were planning to continue into the weekend, if necessary.
- Schools face new strike threat: custodians
More strikes, this time by janitors and maintenance
workers, are threatening to shut down Ontario's schools for the third time in
a year.
The union that represents 45,000 school support staff says workers may
strike in January unless the province restores cuts to funding for the services
they provide.
The strikes would shut down every school in the province, a union leader
says.
"If we end up having to go on strike, I think it would lead to massive
closures of the school system across Ontario," said Sid Ryan, the Ontario
leader of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
- Province passes bill on teaching time
Contract talks between Ontario's teachers and their
school boards just got tougher.
The Harris government on Wednesday passed Bill 63, which sets out a
clear definition of instruction time.
That means boards which have yet to strike deals won't be able to include
such tasks as cafeteria and hallway supervision or "mentoring" time as
teaching time.
- Clubs should pay their way for school use,
premier says
Bridge clubs and other community groups that use
school space for free should start paying their way to help keep Ontario
schools open, Premier Mike Harris said Thursday.
"There are many examples where the town actually pays for the meeting
space and the bridge club pays for the bridge space," Harris said.
"That balances out so you can have a half-empty school with other uses
that still cover the cost of the school and there's no need for the board to
close it."
A new provincial funding formula that pays school maintenance fees based
on how many students are enrolled, not the size of the school, will mean
boards will have to close schools by next September.
- Anti-racism lessons still important, Johnson
says
Anti-racism groups attacked Ontario's education
minister Thursday after learning his officials ordered lessons discouraging
violence and racial discrimination removed from school curriculum.
A ministry memo leaked by Ontario's New Democrats instructs "project
managers" writing a new curriculum for Grade 9 and 10 students to delete
references to "violence prevention, anti-discrimination and education about
native people."
-
10 public schools expected
to close
Committees would be set up to examine
possible candidates
The district school board of
Niagara set wheels in motion
Tuesday that could see the
closing of both elementary
and high schools across the
region.
"We will reduce costs by several millions of dollars by closing 10
schools," said Dalton Clark, a trustee and chair of the education
program and planning committee that met Tuesday night in St.
Catharines.
- Trillium Lakelands secondary school teachers take part in one day
rotating strike - Wednesday, October 7
The secondary school teacher bargaining unit
of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) District 15 has
notified the Trillium Lakelands District School Board of a one-day withdrawal
of services to take place on Wednesday, October 7, 1998 unless a satisfactory
collective agreement has been reached. ``The purpose of the walk out is to
express the teachers' frustration and concern with the pace of local
negotiations,'' explained Peter Carroll, local president of the high school
teachers. ``We will return to school on Thursday, but we hope the Board will
listen to the frontline teachers and their concerns and return to the
bargaining table to try and resolve the workload issues,'' added Carroll.
- School closures in Ontario pit parent
against parent
Ontario parents with school-age children are starting
to receive letters from school boards indicating which schools in their
neighbourhoods will close.
The Ontario Public School Board Association says hundreds of schools
are going to have to be shut before September because of new funding
rules imposed by the province.
- Students must get full course after lost time:
Johnson
Ontario school boards must order enough makeup
time in the wake of teacher strikes and lockouts to ensure students get a full
curriculum, Education Minister Dave Johnson warned Tuesday.
- Money woes hinder public
board talks
$18.5-million budget cut will mean some
school closings
The Windsor Star
Wednesday, October 7, 1998 Budget deliberations by the public school board Tuesday
showed why it is facing a negotiation battle with teachers and
possible high school closures.
The overall operational budget for the Greater Essex County
District School Board has been reduced from $221.8 million in
1997 to $203.3 million this school year. The $18.5 million cut
represents an 8.3 per cent one-year reduction.
"It leaves us in a bad situation as far as negotiating contracts,"
said public board chairman George Kennedy. "We just don't
have the bucks.
"School accommodations is also part of this. We've got some
tough decisions. This is why we have to have school closings."
- Ontario teachers shrinking, unions say
Students at Ontario's public high schools will have to
cope with 2,400 fewer teachers this year, says the head of the Secondary
School Teachers' Federation.
"It means that students do not have the same amount of choice in terms of
subject offering," Earl Manners told a news conference Monday.
"It means that in some cases, class sizes have gone up rather than down. It
is going to mean that schools will have to close."
The union, which represents Ontario's 50,000 high school teachers and
their aides, arrived at the 2,400 figure after asking school boards to
compare the number of teachers they are employing this month with the
number employed at the same time last year.
- OSSTF DISTRICT 22 NIAGARA ON ROTATING STRIKE
Public high school teachers in the
Niagara District School Board will be on a one day rotating strike on Monday,
October 5, 1998. Representatives of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers'
Federation (OSSTF), District 22 Niagara will deliver a statement on the
current state of negotiations with the Niagara District School Board. They
will also be available for individual interviews.
- Catholic teachers boycott grad night
Still stung by back to work legislation, Catholic high school teachers won't be taking part in a
graduation ceremony tonight for about 250 Bishop Ryan High School students.
Teachers say participating in the two-hour graduation ceremony, as well as organizing a church
service, breakfast communion and dinner and dance are extra-curricular activitie.
Most of the region's 500 Catholic high school teachers refuse to take part in such activities,
including coaching sports or supervising student councils, clubs and dances.
At the same time, in Halton, more than 15,000 students will be out of classes today as Halton's
public high school teachers hit picket lines in a one-day walkout to protest a heavier teaching load.
Today, 900 teachers in the Halton unit of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation were
to picket MPPs' offices, high schools and the school board office on Guelph Line as part of their
labour dispute with the Halton District School Board.
- More tumult at Ontario schools
Only days after back-to-work legislation forced thousands of striking teachers to
return to school, about 15,000 students at 17 public high schools in Halton
Region stayed home Thursday because of a one-day boycott by their teachers.
More rotating strikes are threatened at high schools and, now, elementary school
teachers are taking strike votes as their unions encounter problems of their own
reaching contract agreements with school boards.
In Toronto, the head of the local public school board seemed to confirm
opposition charges that 700 Ontario schools would be forced to close because
of government funding cuts.
-
School strike feared
Niagara high school teachers poised to
join walkouts after breakdown in talks
with public board
- Harris blames unions for SkyDome booing
Ontario Premier Mike Harris is blaming teachers'
unions for turning the kids who booed him during Nelson Mandela's
SkyDome visit against him.
"I was disappointed," Harris said Tuesday.
"And I'm always disappointed whenever union fights, if you like, are
brought into the classroom."
Harris, who has been pelted with eggs and burned in effigy by some adults
who oppose his policies, got his first public whipping by children on Friday.
Loud and persistent booing by some of the 40,000 school children at the
Dome drowned out his welcoming of Mandela to Toronto.
- TEACHER BACK TO WORK LEGISLATION - JUST ANOTHER
EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE
``The teacher Back to Work legislation is just
the latest example of the Ontario government's continued interference with a
chaotic collective bargaining process they have created,'' said Earl Manners,
president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF).
``The introduction of this legislation resulted in the termination of
negotiations with the Durham District School Board, the only public board
where teachers are on full strike.
``This is the third re-interpretation of instructional time since Labour
Day. Each time, the Minister has interfered, he has caused a breakdown in
negotiations in boards across the province.
- It's back to school for thousands of
Ontario students
Most of the 200,000 Ontario students idled by a labour
dispute were to be back in school Tuesday after the government ordered
teachers back to work and school boards to let teachers work.
The legislature passed the back-to-work bill late Monday after opposition
politicians earlier in the day agreed to work through the evening to allow the
Tories to push the legislation through in a single day.
The bill passed by a vote of 61-36, with NDP and Liberal members voting
against it.
The pact sent officials at eight Ontario school boards scrambling to re-open
schools, which had been idle for three to five weeks because of teachers strikes
and lockouts.
They were mostly Catholic high schools in Toronto and surrounding
communities.
- Disruptions not over at Ontario schools yet
Thousands of striking teachers returned to work after
weeks off the job at Ontario schools Tuesday, but the disruptions for
students aren't over yet.
Extra-curricular activities such as sports and school clubs are still off at
hundreds of Ontario schools.
One-day rotating strikes are being scheduled at public high schools across
the province and Catholic teachers are refusing to teach an extra scheduled
class a day.
- Catholic teachers remain locked out
Toronto -- Hopes for an imminent return to school for Toronto's
32,000 Roman Catholic high-school students faded last night on the
eve of provincial legislation to end teacher labour disputes across the
province.
Last night, at a special meeting, trustees of the Toronto Catholic
District School Board decided not to lift a lockout against 2,000
Catholic teachers that could have sent students back to the classrooms
this week.
"The lockout has not been lifted," board chairman Joe Martino said
after the special meeting. Earlier in the day, he had expressed optimism
about a possible end to the lockout that could have brought teachers
and students back to class tomorrow.
- Back-to-work bill spices up sleepy
political season
The Ontario legislative session that starts today was
supposed to be kind of sleepy.
It looked like a few fairly non-contentious bills would be passed, new legislation
would be introduced and all parties would begin posturing in earnest for an
election expected next spring.
Then the Progressive Conservative government announced it would bring in
legislation today ordering teachers back to work - a move that guaranteed no
one would be dozing off.
"I think this will be fairly heated, fairly controversial," predicts political scientist
Brian Tanguay of Waterloo�s Wilfrid Laurier University.
"I think the Tories will be hauled on the carpet."
Parents may desperately want the 180,000 students affected by strikes and
lockouts at school again soon.
But the fact that Conservatives are forcing teachers back to work after
prompting the labor disputes in the first place with their education legislation
makes it a touchy issue, said Tanguay.
- High schoolers say students' interests
should come first
Legislating teachers back to work is only a short-term
solution to problems facing the Ontario education system, says a group
representing the province's high school students.
"Things aren't coming out in a completely positive way," Javeed Sakhera,
president of the Ontario Secondary School Students Association, said in an
interview Saturday.
"The legislation gets us back into class, and that is good."
But having teachers back in the classroom without having reached
settlements with their boards could hurt students over time, he added.
"As students we do value the causes that teachers are fighting," Sakhera
said. "We don't want teachers to have low morale because if there's
unhappy teachers in the classroom that does translate to the students
because we do look up to them."
- Ontario students unlikely to see
school before Thanksgiving
Thousands of Ontario students may not see the inside of a
classroom before Thanksgiving as hope that legislation to get teachers back to
work could be quickly passed faded on Friday.
Education Minister Dave Johnson ruled out an emergency weekend session of
the legislature that could have sped up the process.
Opposition members said they would not only vote against back-to-work
legislation, but use all of their allotted time for debate if they don�t like its content
- Ontario teachers to be ordered back to work
The Ontario government will introduce legislation Monday
ordering teachers back to work, but students shouldn't expect to return to class
until at least Oct. 7. Education Minister Dave Johnson said Thursday he could
not "in good conscience" allow a dispute that has kept more than 200,000
students out of class since the beginning of the school year to continue. "These
are exceptional circumstances in my view and warrant action at this time,"
Johnson said. "I think it's time to get the kids back into school and we'll be
taking that step on Monday."
- Ontario to force teachers back to class
The Ontario government will bring in legislation to send about 134,000 primary-
and secondary-school students back to their classes, Education Minister Dave Johnson said
yesterday.
But, faced with warnings from both opposition parties that they will oppose the legislation, he
said it could take up to two weeks to end the teacher strikes and lockouts keeping those
students at home.
The affected schools include Roman Catholic high schools in Toronto, Peel Region,
Peterborough, Hamilton and Sudbury; primary and secondary Catholic schools in York
Region; and both public and Catholic high schools in Durham Region.
The students have been out of their classes for three weeks.
- NDP to stall back-to-work legislation
Ontario's New Democrats will oppose any legislation
forcing striking teachers back to work -- even if the experts monitoring the
dispute decide the school year is in jeopardy.
"I want to be very direct and very clear: New Democrats will not support
back-to-work legislation," NDP Leader Howard Hampton said Tuesday.
"Back-to-work legislation will not solve the funding crisis."
- Public high school teachers in the
Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board
will be on rotating strike beginning today
unless a satisfactory collective agreement is
reached
- Catholic lockout over, union says
Thousands of Catholic high school students in
Toronto could be back in school as early as Tuesday under a "temporary
arrangement" between the board and teachers union, the Ontario Catholic
Teachers Association said.
The union's Toronto bargaining unit said Monday a lockout that has kept
students out of class since the beginning of the school year is over.
"This temporary arrangement will allow for serious bargaining over the next
four days," said a statement by the unit.
- Ontario parents plan to teach classes, sports
as strikes continue
Ontario parents are preparing to take over the
classrooms and playing fields at schools where a teachers dispute has
cancelled classes and after-school sports.
In Durham Region, east of Toronto, more than 500 parents have joined a
growing list of volunteers who say they will take matters into their own
hands and teach their children themselves.
"We thought about using a toilet plunger as a symbol," explained organizer
David Jones, of the group Parents for Stable Education.
No end in sight to teacher strikes, lockouts: union
Tens of thousands of students will likely have to stay home
going into a third week because of strikes and lockouts that threaten to leave
lasting wounds, a key teachers union leader said Friday. As the second week of
the dispute ended, no Roman Catholic board was in negotiation with its union
local, said Marshall Jarvis, head of the English Catholic Teachers Association.
Parents Set Up Alternative Classes in Churches and Community Centers
Paent Revolt spreads across Ontario.
Job action hits elementary schools
As one dispute is coming to an end, with public high school teachers expected
to accept their tentative contract Thursday, another battle is brewing.
This time it's at Waterloo Region's public elementary schools.
Beginning today, all teachers are being advised by their union not to run
extra-curricular activities. Until now, elementary teachers had not participated
in any job action.
Public high school teachers are expected to resume extra-curricular activities
after they accept the tentative settlement. Voting will be held in schools on
Thursday.
Elementary teachers join protest
Overwhelming strike vote means public pupils may lose
sports, extras: Provincial legislation focus of escalating labour
strife.
Safety comes first
Hamilton Spectator Editorial:The safety of Halton Catholic Secondary Schools must remain paramount in the ongoing dispute
between teachers and school boards.
For that reason it's time the Halton Catholic District School Board give serious thought to locking
out its high school teachers until a resolution can be reached.
We're not taking sides in this ongoing labour dispute between the board and their teachers. Our
point is the safety of the students must be the foremost consideration.
Backbenchers pressing minister over
teachers
Backbench Ontario Tories are joining parents
whose children are out of school because of strikes or lockouts in asking
the education minister to legislate teachers back to work.
Pressure mounts for law to end
teachers strike
TORONTO (CP) - Ontario's education minister promised Tuesday to consider
forcing teachers back to work, as pressure mounted for some kind of
government intervention in a dispute that's kept 200,000 students out of school.
Dave Johnson held a lengthy meeting with a local parents group whose one
request was immediate back-to-work legislation.
They had arrived at Queen's Park with a gaggle of children locked out of their
strike-bound schools.
At the same time, a coalition of seven Roman Catholic school boards called on
the province to step in, either with legislation or some other action to lessen the
power of teachers unions.
Thousands of Ontario students still out of classes
It feels like fall but tens of thousands of Ontario students
remain on summer holidays while their teachers' unions continue to battle it out
with local school boards over new contracts. About 130,000 Roman Catholic
students, most of them in high school, and thousands more public school pupils
throughout the province are to begin their second straight week sitting out classes
because of strikes and lockouts.
Tuesday strike pending
Public high school teachers ready for 1-day
walkout
Public high school teachers have threatened to close all 15 secondary schools
in Waterloo Region on Tuesday.
Local high school teachers got telephone calls Sunday night, advising them to
be ready for a one-day strike unless a tentative agreement is reached with the
Waterloo Region district school board by midnight tonight.
Teacher showdown
Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic school board trustees are poised today for a
showdown with protesting high school teachers.
Board Chairman Pat Daly says the board will decide if teachers will be locked
out.
"A decision will be made today, when and if (a lockout will occur)," board
chairman Pat Daly said in a phone interview last night.
"I don't want to speculate but we won't allow this to go on for a month."
Daly's comments were the first sign of any movement in the dispute after talks
broke down late Friday.
TALKS TO RESUME BETWEEN TORONTO CATHOLIC DISTRICT
SCHOOL BOARD AND ITS SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
The Toronto Catholic District School Board is
resuming talks with its secondary school teachers. Meetings between the Board
and the Toronto Secondary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers'
Association will begin on Sunday, September 13, 1998.
``TCDSB will do its utmost to resolve the current labour dispute with our
secondary school teachers, and get our students back to the classroom,'' says
Joseph Martino, Chairman of the Board.
ANOTHER GOVERNMENT INFOMERCIAL - NO SUBSTANCE, MORE
RHETORIC
``As usual, when the Conservative government is
faced with their own created chaos in education they simply buy more
advertising and repeat their worn out message,'' said Earl Manners, president
of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF).
School peace is bound to be costly
When you get to the basics, it's all about money.
The dispute between high school teachers and Waterloo Region's school
boards has embraced many topics: the time teachers should spend in the
classroom; how many classes they teach; how many students should be in the
class.
But, as the public high school teachers and Waterloo Region district school
board get ready to negotiate Sunday, and as Catholic teacher unions and
board officials plan to meet next Thursday, it becomes clear that only money
can bring peace to region high schools.
Johnson says no to bigger class sizes
Ontario's education minister has rejected a proposal that
teachers' unions say would have ended a dispute at the province's schools and
allowed all Catholic students to return to the classroom. Dave Johnson said
Friday a tentative deal between Catholic secondary teachers and the St. Clair
District board near Sarnia is illegal because it doesn't keep class sizes below the
new provincial limit of 22.
Signs of movement seen in teachers' dispute
Most of the students kept out of Ontario schools
since Tuesday because of their teachers' contract disputes could be back in
the classroom by Monday, union leaders say.
Word that the province will let teachers wait up to two years before
complying with a law requiring they spend more time in the classroom has
invigorated contract talks.
"We've got the first real movement and some very, very good
negotiations," Marshall Jarvis, head of the Ontario English Catholic
Teachers Association, said Thursday.
- LAMBTON KENT DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD SERVES STRIKE NOTICE
he 670 public high school teachers
employed by the Lambton Kent District School Board announced the commencement
of strike action, beginning on Wednesday, September 9, 1998.
Board official predicts chaos
Education Minister Dave Johnson's reversal on how he defines instructional
time will only add more confusion to teachers' contract talks, a local school
board official says.
"It'll create more chaos," a frustrated Roger Lawler, director of the Waterloo
district Catholic school board, said Wednesday.
"This whole issue has become like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall."
In negotiations with its high school teachers, the Catholic board has been using
the strict definition of instructional time that Johnson confirmed in a letter to all
boards last week.
Ontario teachers set off battle for hearts and minds
n the labour skirmish that has kept thousands of Ontario
students out of school, the government would have people believe it isn't even on
the battlefield. Never mind that the contract disputes centre around provincial
legislation making teachers spend more time teaching.
Johnson urges teachers to return to classes
More than 200,000 Ontario students, mostly those in
southern high schools, faced their second day without school Wednesday as the
province's education minister urged teachers to keep politics out of the
classroom. "Look, it's not fine with me if one child loses a day of school. Parents
are concerned about that, I'm concerned about that, that's why I encourage
unions and boards to sit down and negotiate these differences," Johnson said
Tuesday.
Ontario hints at forcing teachers back to class
The Ontario government will legislate striking teachers back into
classrooms if students are at risk of losing their year, Education
Minister Dave Johnson promised yesterday. Yesterday, on what was
the first day of school for many students in the province, there were
few signs of progress in disputes where teachers are either on strike or
locked out in six of 72 school districts across the province
Only WCI shut on Day 1 of
unsettled school term
Students who attend Waterloo Collegiate Institute have already lost a day of
their school year, even before the storm clouds of a threatened teachers' strike
break.
Across the province, there's mass confusion for returning students. Some
teacher unions -- locked in a clash with the get-tough Ontario government --
are already on strike, some are planning strikes, and still others have settled.
In Waterloo Region, every high school except WCI was open for business
today, most of them only for part of the day to allow students to pick up
timetables and get oriented.
Ontario teachers deliberately trying to avoid longer hours,
government says
The Ontario government is accusing the province�s teachers
of deliberately trying to shirk a new requirement that they spend more time in the
classroom with students. "It certainly looks like some of the unions were trying to
avoid changes in the requirements in terms of instructional time," Rob Savage, a
senior aide to Education Minister Dave Johnson, said Sunday.
Ontario shakeup of education sends teachers to the
barricades-Strikes, lockouts loom
as province tightens minute-by-minute control-
As tradition had it, teachers unions typically marched near
the back of Toronto's annual Labour Day parade -- "we were always
17th, right in front of the Iranian Communist party," recalled Liz
Barkley, new president of the Ontario Teachers' Federation.
"We're nearer to the front this year."
It's not a position teachers are particularly happy to find themselves in.
"These are not radical people," Ms. Barkley said.
However, their dispute with Ontario's Progressive Conservative
government puts them front and centre -- and clearly in the sights of
Education Minister Dave Johnson, who is displaying little tolerance for
the prospect of a second year with strikes in the school system.
Teachers take strike action
Three days before school starts, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic
high school teachers are taking strike action.
Negotiations between union and board officials broke down last
night.
The teachers' union filed a letter with the school board saying a
"partial strike" will begin Tuesday.
Talks continue; teachers get set to
boycott classes
Talks to avert disruption on the first day of school for
Ontario's 2.1 million students were to continue over the weekend, with
thousands of teachers across the province poised to boycott classes in their
second strike in a year.
Unions, angry over a government demand teachers spend more time in the
classroom, were to give students and parents word by Monday whether schools
would be open or closed on Tuesday.
As the week ended, a variety of job action was threatened, ranging from a
refusal to teach extra-curricular activities to a boycott of a single class a day,
rotating strikes or a full-blown walkout.
Southern Ontario Schools will open Tuesday
Region's secondary teachers will be in class, but
plan job action
OSSTF REPLY TO EDUCATION MINISTER'S OPEN LETTER TO
TEACHER UNION LEADERS
on September 4, you ask us, ``to give negotiations
with your board a chance.'' These words ring hollow from a Minister who has
interfered with the negotiations process since the passing of Bill 160.
If you were truly interested in teachers and school boards reaching
successful agreements, you would not have deliberately under funded secondary
education in this province.
TEACHERS URGE TORONTO AREA CATHOLIC BOARDS TO
NEGOTIATE SERIOUSLY
The President of the Ontario English Catholic
Teachers' Association is calling on Catholic school boards in the greater
Toronto area to make a serious commitment to reaching settlements with
teachers before school begins on Tuesday. Ten of the province's Catholic
school boards have reached agreements with teachers, but none of these are in
the Toronto area, where the majority of the province's population is
concentrated.
``Teachers want to be in the classrooms delivering the full programs
their students deserve. Nobody wants to begin this year with disruptions in
schools,'' says Marshall Jarvis.
Unless settlements are reached over the weekend, all 2300 teachers in
OECTA's York Unit will begin a full strike on Tuesday, joining the 1508
secondary teachers in Dufferin-Peel already on strike. Meanwhile, Toronto's
2012 Catholic high school teachers will begin a partial strike on Tuesday and
Durham's 396 Catholic high school teachers will begin a partial strike which
could escalate into a full strike. ``Some of the boards have refused to even
discuss the staffing issues which would ensure that schools would open on
Tuesday,'' Jarvis says.
YORK REGION TEACHERS SHOCKED BY BOARD'S DECISION TO
UNILATERALLY ALTER THEIR WORKING CONDITIONS
`By voting to unilaterally change teachers'
terms and conditions of employment, the York Region District School Board has
broken faith with its elementary public school teachers,'' says Phyllis
Benedict, President of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO).
``We will not stand by and watch this happen.''
Talks between the elementary teachers and the York Region Board broke
down late Tuesday, September 1. On September 2, trustees voted to decrease
teachers' preparation time. Preparation time is used to plan programs, consult
with parents and colleagues, evaluate student work and access available
services. The loss of preparation time will mean teachers will have less time
to meet the needs of their students.
Edmonton Catholic teachers reject
memorandum of agreement for 1997/98
contract
Extra period in classroom is
key to teachers' dispute
More than a year of unrest - and the threat of
another widespread strike - at Ontario�s schools all boils down to
a single issue: a new law forcing teachers to spend an extra period
a day in the classroom.
Widespread teacher strikes loom in Ontario
With only a week before Ontario's 2.1 million
students are expected to return to school, widespread strikes by their
teachers threaten to keep classrooms closed for the second time in a year.
Ontario Teachers strikes likely after trustees nix
accord
The Ontario Catholic school board trustees have
axed tentative accords that would have averted strikes affecting thousands
of students, the teachers' union head charged today.
Walkouts at schools attended by 450,000 high school students are now
likely after the last-minute move by trustees Monday night, said union chief
Marshall Jarvis.
Alberta Teachers Threaten To Strike
Provincewide teacher bargaining possible: minister
he Ontario government will consider setting up
provincewide contract bargaining with teachers unions, Education Minister
Dave Johnson said Tuesday.
The current system that sees 72 school boards each negotiate collective
agreements with their teachers could be gone in a few years, Johnson said.
Simcoe District School Board Provokes Confrontation -
Strike To Begin On August 20
Boards make deals to delay cuts a year:
union head
Several Ontario school boards have made temporary
deals with high school teachers that will effectively delay
government-ordered cuts for another year, says the teachers' union head.
An Education Ministry spokesman warned such accords, designed to
ensure labor peace during a turbulent period, would create "real problems."
Waterloo Board Opts For Confrontation
Without waiting for today's negotiations
and the mediation session next week, the Waterloo Region District School Board
chose to impose changed terms and conditions of employment on public secondary
school teachers. The imposed changes are far reaching and affect many areas of
the collective agreement. These changes are not required by Bill 160.
``The board should negotiate rather than impose its bargaining positions
on our members,'' stated John Ryrie, president of OSSTF, District 24
Simcoe County Elementary Teachers Appalled With
School Board Actions!
Windsor Teacher Elected To Provincial Executive Of New
Elementary Teachers' Federation Of Ontario
In her address to the 800 delegates and alternates attending ETFO's First
Annual Meeting in Toronto, Hilda Watkins said ``We cannot allow government, any
government, to create a two-tiered system of education. Creating a system of
haves and have-nots only perpetuates regression and violence. Such a
culturally deprived and hostile atmosphere results in unsuitable learning and
working environment. When we ensure a quality, publicly funded system of
education, we serve Ontarians.''New Teachers Federation Elects Executive
New funding system will shut rural schools:
critics
The local school is often the one thing that brings
people together in small, country communities.
But Ontario's new formula for funding education has put many of those
schools on the brink of closing -- and threatened the communities that
depend on them, critics charged
Ontario Teachers set up picket lines
High school teachers in the Durham District board east of Toronto, the
Simcoe District board north of here and the Near North board
encompassing North Bay and Parry Sound are on strike.
- Public, Catholic boards clash
over future of schools in Ontario July 2
