Negotiations between the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the government and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) broke down on Sept. 11.
The Ontario government and OPSBA walked away from the central bargaining table.
“I don’t know why they walked away but … they certainly want to impose a deal on us,” said Upper Grand ETFO president Gundi Barbour.
“Our members had a deal imposed already with Bill 115 in 2012 and the Wynne government seems to want to impose another deal on us … that is perhaps similar to the other bargaining units, OSSTF and OECTA, but we are not OSSTF especially, we deal with mostly young children … our members have different needs than secondary school teachers do.”
Barbour said there are no dates set to begin another round of bargaining.
“Right now we’re hoping that they’ll pick up the phone and will continue bargaining,” Barbour said. “Right now we’re going to continue our work-to-rule and we’re prepared to escalate our strike action if there’s no change.”
