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'Doug Ford has forced us' onto picket lines, says Sudbury teachers' union prez

Barb Blasutti of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario suggests parents upset with strikes write to gov't to voice their displeasure

A Sudbury union official representing English public elementary teachers says she knows having your kids out of school due to strikes is hard, but teachers are striking “because we have no other recourse.”

A rotating, one-day strike by members of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), which includes full-time and occasional teachers, as well as early childhood educators, hit Greater Sudbury Wednesday. Elementary classes at the Rainbow District School Board were cancelled Jan. 22.

ETFO has one-day strikes planned in different boards across the province every school day this week, and the strikes continue into next week. 

All four Ontario teachers' unions are engaged in either one-day strikes or work-to-rule.

“We know this is hard on parents, and teachers do not make this decision lightly,” said Barb Blasutti, president of the ETFO Rainbow teachers' local. 

“We are doing it because Doug Ford has forced us to do this,” said the union leader, referring to cuts to the Ontario education system.

Speaking to Sudbury.com Jan. 22 on the picket lines in front of Chelmsford Valley District Composite School, Blasutti said there is something proactive parents can do.

She encouraged parents to write to Minister of Education Stephen Lecce “and express their desire to get this situation resolved,” and that Ontario schoolchildren should not “be the victims of their cuts.”

Referring to the rotating teachers' strikes (a provincewide, one-day strike by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association also took place Tuesday), Lecce released a written statement Jan. 21.

"We fully recognize the negative impacts teacher union escalation is having on families," he said.

"It is why we are calling on these union leaders to end these strikes, given the adverse effects on students and financial hardship on parents. While this union-led escalation happens far too often, we are committed to negotiating deals that keep students in class, while providing financial support for families for child care needs."

The Progressive Conservative government said the sticking point in stalled negotiations with teachers' unions is the unions' demands for a two-per-cent wage increase.

The government has passed legislation capping public sector wage increases at one per cent, something the teachers' unions are challenging in court and opposing at the bargaining table.

While wages are on the table — Blasutti said the ETFO is asking for a cost of living increase — she said the current labour strife is not all about teachers' pay.

“What teachers are giving up in salary on these one-day withdrawals is actually probably more than we're even going to gain by getting a two-per-cent increase to the cost of living to our compensation packages,” she said.

“It's not about the salary and compensation as much as it is about the cuts that Doug Ford and his government are making to the education system.”

Class-size increases have been a major issue in this set of talks, and they affect not only high schoolers, but some elementary students, as well, said Blasutti.

“They've cut funding,” she said. “What that has done is make an impact on the class size averages in our junior and intermediate classes throughout the board and throughout the province.”

The full-day kindergarten program brought in by the previous Liberals that sees a teacher paired with an early childhood educator may also be at risk, she said.

“We're asking Doug Ford and his government to commit to this current model, and they won't do so,” Blasutti said.

The union leader said ETFO also wants to secure funding for special needs students. 

“These are our most vulnerable students and they require funding so we can support them,” she said. “And again, Doug Ford is refusing to make that commitment, as well.”

Several Ontario school boards have announced this week they won't send home elementary school report cards next month due to ETFO work-to-rule job action.

So far, no such announcement has been issued by the Rainbow District School Board regarding elementary report cards, but Sudbury.com will bring you that information if and when it's released.

As part of the job action, ETFO told its members not to input data electronically, and instead provide principals with a list of marks or a comment per section for kindergarten students.

Lecce has also issued a written statement about the report card situation.

"Yet again, teacher union leaders are risking student success and preventing parents from seeing valuable information about their child's performance in class,” he said.

“It underscores our government's insistence that teacher union leaders cancel these strikes that are hurting our kids. 

“And it only strengthens our belief that parents want our government to invest in front-line services, not in compensation and other demands, for some of the highest-paid educators in the country."

-With files from Canadian Press


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Heidi Ulrichsen

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