All Out to Support Education Workers' Ongoing Strike and Work-to-Rule Actions!

Picket at Thorold Secondary School, January 8, 2020 on the year's first one-day OSSTF strike.

As of January 13, all of the four unions representing teachers and education workers in Ontario are at some stage of strike actions to oppose the Ontario government's restructuring of public education and the violation of their rights to collective bargaining. While the government is fighting to erode education and privatize its delivery, Ontario's educators are fighting to defend their right to have a say over the direction of education so that it serves the needs of the youth, rather than the demands of the rich.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) has been carrying out strike action, both work-to-rule and rotating weekly one-day full withdrawal of services, since December 4, 2019, with all their members working in K-12 and adult education having participated in, or set to participate in, at least two days of full work withdrawals. OSSTF members have also been involved in informing their communities what their fight is about through leafletting and holding information pickets. Their work-to-rule actions thus far have forced the government to postpone the standardized Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), which was to be held in January. Their rotating strikes continue each week with five districts going out January 15.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation (ETFO) has stepped up its strike actions since implementing its first phase of work-to-rule. As of January 13 its members began withdrawing from all extracurricular activities such as sports and school clubs outside of school hours as well as other administrative duties including those related to the implementation of standardized testing (known as EQAO). Members arrive at school and leave according to the requirements of their contract, rather than being at school for the many hours before and after like they normally are to prepare for their classes or lead voluntary activities for students. ETFO has also announced that it will begin rotating strikes starting January 20, unless there is progress in negotiations.

On January 13 the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) launched its first phase of work-to-rule actions. It has made clear that if the government does not back down on its moves to deteriorate publicly funded education it will begin full strikes, rotating or otherwise. OECTA has announced its members will hold a province-wide strike Tuesday, January 21.

On January 11, the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) announced that its members have given the union a 97 per cent strike mandate and will begin a selective withdrawal of services starting January 16.

There are two other groups of unions that represent education workers that are not on strike or carrying out work-to-rule actions at this time. One, the Education Workers' Alliance of Ontario (EWAO) represents, among others, education workers' associations in Dufferin-Peel, Halton and Waterloo Region and the Association of Professional Student Services Personnel. EWAO currently has a tentative agreement with the government and its members are holding ratification votes. The other group, the Ontario Council of Educational Workers, made up of workers represented by the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Unifor, Ontario Public Service Employees' Union and Service Employees International Union, among others, is still in negotiations.

Overall, recent actions bring upwards of 190,000 Ontario teachers and education workers into job actions to reject the direction that the Ford government wants to take Ontario's education system.

This article was published in

Number 1 - January 15, 2020

Article Link:
All Out to Support Education Workers' Ongoing Strike and Work-to-Rule Actions!

    

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