High School Teachers Vote in Favour of Strike Action

Monday, 18 November 2019 13:47

92 percent of members in the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation have voted in favour of a strike action if talks continue to break down with the Province.

ONTARIO - Members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation have voted in favour of strike action.

92 percent of OSSTF/FEESO education workers voted in favour of a strike action, and the Federation’s teacher and occasional teacher members provided a 95.5 per cent strike mandate.

The union held votes over the past couple of weeks. This is one of the first steps to take before an actual strike would take place and strike would only happen if talks continue to break down in central bargaining with the Province.

OSSTF/FEESO Present Harvey Bischof says the strike vote sends a clear message.

“This is a powerful mandate from our members, and it sends a compelling message. Our members are committed to defending the quality of education in Ontario against a government that is determined to undermine it, and they are absolutely prepared to defend their ability to provide the best possible learning environment for the students they work with. They are also telling us, quite emphatically, that they are losing patience with a government that refuses to engage in meaningful discussion about major issues that affect the quality of learning in their schools. We gave our notice to bargain almost seven months ago, but we are still waiting for even one meaningful, serious response to our key proposals that address the quality of publicly funded education.”

Although OSSTF/FEESO now has a clear strike mandate from its members, the union has not yet announced that it will be taking job action.

“We are at the bargaining table today and not on the picket line as we could have been. This is a choice we made for this week because we remain committed to looking for solutions through negotiations. I sincerely hope the Ford government seeks the same and isn't intent on creating additional unnecessary conflict.”

Last week the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario announced it's members will be doing a work to rule campaign starting on November 26th.