SUDBURY—Elementary school teachers within the Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) local will be voting this week on whether they will give their union a strike mandate.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is holding in-person strike votes for its members until October 17 with teachers in various regions voting on different days.
“Our dates for our members in this area (Rainbow district) to vote will include two meetings, one on Manitoulin Island on September 28 and another one on September 27 in Sudbury,” said Liana Holm of the RDSB ETFO Rainbow local.
ETFO had previously filed for conciliation, citing what it explained was “the unacceptably slow pace of bargaining,” but has rejected a government proposal to leave any outstanding issues to be decided by an arbitrator.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) has tentatively agreed to negotiate with the province until the end of next month and if negotiations have not resulted in an agreement, then they would move to binding arbitration, which would eliminate the possibility of a strike. The other teacher’s unions in Ontario have been requested by Education Minister Stephen Lecce to accept the same deal. However, the teachers’ unions have rejected the request.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) will be holding strike votes on October 18-19, meanwhile OSSTF members have until September 27 to vote on whether they want to accept the binding arbitration proposal.
