Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Students at Ontario's public high schools can count on a little more certainty this fall: the teacher's union and the government have reached an agreement that should prevent a strike.
The two sides still haven't come to terms on a new contract but have agreed that if they still haven't by the end of October, they'll send any outstanding issues to arbitration. The news of the arrangement with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) was first reported by the Toronto Star. Education Minister Stephen Lecce formally announced it at Queen's Park on Friday afternoon.
"I'm here today to set in motion a strategy that will keep kids in class and lay the foundation for stability and peace for four years," Lecce said. "A student that started Grade 9 in an English public school last year will be able to graduate over the next three years without the threat of a strike."
Union members will now start voting on whether they want to enter into the proposal, which union leaders recommend. That process will run through the end of September, the union said in a release.
"Today represents a critical point in this round of bargaining," OSSTF president Karen Littlewood said in a statement. "This process is not a tentative agreement but it does promise to break any impasse by bringing in a third-party arbitrator to seek a fair and just resolution.”
Lecce will present the other education unions — the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA), and the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) — the same deal as early as Monday.
The deal also includes a remedy for wages lost under Bill 124, the provincial wage restraint legislation, which is currently before the courts, the OSSTF said in the release.
"Members will receive the remedy without having to wait for the courts to decide on the constitutionality of Bill 124," Littlewood said.
Lecce refused to comment further on that provision.
Union members "need to be able to ratify this independent of myself and other political actors so I will respect that process," he said.
Teachers' unions and the government have been bargaining for about a year and frustrations have been mounting as the new school year approaches. The OSSTF, as well the ETFO and the OECTA, recently announced they intended to hold strike votes in the fall.
It could mean more peace on the labour front this year, especially if other unions follow suit.
Last November, education unions went on strike to protest the government's decision to impose a contract on CUPE education workers, pre-emptively using the notwithstanding clause to insulate the bill from a Charter challenge. When unions across the public and private sectors, including some that have been supportive of Ford's Tories, began to mobilize in support, the government backed down.
Soon afterwards, the CUPE education workers reached a deal, but bargaining with the teaching unions has dragged on.
Ontario uses a two-tier bargaining process to reach collective agreements with education unions, where central bargaining with the province covers compensation and major policy issues, and local issues are negotiated with individual school boards.
