Ontario elementary school teachers will withdraw further services when they launch the next round of a work-to-rule campaign next week.
A collective bargaining update sent out by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario said the next level of strike action will begin June 1, if the union and school boards can't reach an agreement.
Starting Monday, teachers and occasional teachers will no longer:
- complete any paperwork, applications or proposals to the Ministry of Education for special grants or funding
- participate in the preparation or completion of Grade 8 to Grade 9 transition reports
- participate in any grade-to-grade transition meetings
- complete end of year Ontario Student Record (OSR) activities including filing, sorting and completion of French cards
- participate in any in-school meetings or professional learning activities on the end of year Professional Activity (PA) day
- book any field trips for the 2015-16 instructional year
The latest strike action follows the first phase, which started May 11. The first round saw teachers withdraw from administrative duties including writing comments on report cards and participating in professional development initiatives.
There will also be no standardized tests until the strike action is over.
The update said that action will continue until the labour dispute is "satisfactorily resolved" or ETFO decides that further action is required.
"Despite the fact that our ETFO collective agreements expired nine months ago, OPSBA and the Liberal government do not seem interested in reaching a reasonable and fair collective agreement with ETFO," union president Sam Hammond told CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness.
The elementary strike began as the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation walked away from contract negotiations with the Rainbow District, Peel Region and Durham Region School Boards. More than 70,000 high school students are not in class as a result.
The OSSTF also left the provincial bargaining table, where negotiations have been at an impasse for weeks.
On Monday, the Ontario Liberal government introduced back-to-work legislation that would affect the striking high school teachers, but Premier Kathleen Wynne’s hope to have it quickly passed with unanimous consent was blocked by the NDP.
The bill is now expected to pass later in the week, Friday being the earliest high school students could be back in the classes.