Province ups pressure on elementary teachers so they return to current talks
Posted Apr 12, 2012 10:31:39 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Ontario’s Liberal government is turning up the heat to get elementary school teachers to return to the provincial discussion table that guides their contract talks.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation walked away from the talks last month after the Liberals said they wanted to freeze their wages, change their pensions and take away the right to bank sick days.
Education Minister Laurel Broten says if elementary teachers opt to go straight to local bargaining, they will have to accept whatever framework deal is worked out at the provincial table.
Broten has written all 72 school boards with the warning, saying it is important to get others — trustees and parents — to help convince the union to return to the talks.
The elementary teachers federation has a news conference scheduled for later today to react to Broten’s demand that they return to the provincial discussion table.
The letter is a first for a government that has had good relations with teachers, but the cash-strapped Liberals made it clear everyone in the public sector has to do their bit to eliminate the deficit.
