ONTARIO—Ontario’s public high school teachers will be entering binding arbitration to get a new contract after bargaining involving the union and the province of Ontario concluded last week.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) had previously agreed to the unique process proposed by the province, which will eliminate the possibility of strikes taking place for a period of three years.
The OSSTF had reached a deal with the province in September to have negotiations continue until October 27, and after this time any outstanding issues would be decided upon by an arbitrator. Talks between the two parties were completed on Wednesday of last week.
Both OSSTF union president Karen Littlewood and education minister Stephen Lecce indicated the parties made good progress in recent negotiations.
Ms. Littlewood indicated that monetary issues are going to be settled by binding arbitration. She told Canadian Press, “The last two months of bargaining was way more productive than the 14 months before that and we were able to accomplish a lot, still nothing to do with money, because the Ford government is not investing in education. I also think that the pathway that our members have approved for us to go to voluntary binding interest arbitration really had an impact on the success at the bargaining table.”
Mr. Lecce told CP, “At the end of the day, my priority is just keeping kids in school. I’m frankly elated that we have a process thar protects the in-person learning experience.”
The agreement to use arbitration will also see the teachers get a remedy for lost wages under a wage restraint law known as Bill 124, though the details haven’t been made public. The three other major teachers’ unions have rejected going to binding arbitration, and negotiations are continuing with them.
Despite several attempts, The Expositor was unable to contact Eric Laberge, OSSTF Rainbow local district president prior to press deadline.
