OSSTF teachers in Sudbury, Peel and Durham plan to resume strike June 10
Education minister said back-to-work legislation will move forward to keep kids in school
The union representing English public secondary school teachers says it will recommence strike action June 10 in Sudbury, Durham and Peel, two weeks after the Ontario Labour Relations Board deemed the strike action illegal, but the province's education minister says steps are being taken to avoid more strike action.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation said strike action will resume following the two-week moratorium imposed by Bernard Fishbein, chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
"We will be acting in full compliance with the OLRB," Paul Elliott, OSSTF president said.
"The ruling calls for a two-week moratorium so that we can, as the OLRB chair phrased it, 'cleanse' our local strike actions of any aspects that are 'in respect of central bargaining'."
Elliot said the union maintains the strikes have always been about local issues. The school boards involved had filed the application with the labour board that said the issues teachers were striking over were central issues, not local ones, which the labour board agreed with.
Education minister Liz Sandals said the government is proceeding with the back-to-work legislation to ensure kids stay in school for the remainder of the year because the Education Relations Commission ruled that their year is in jeopardy.
With files from The Canadian Press