High school teachers' contract agreement in limbo
Teachers' union re-instates work-to-rule campaign in Thunder Bay
The Ministry of Education wants the Lakehead District Public School Board and its high school teachers to make some changes to their tentative contract agreement.
But for now, the parties are not talking and, as of Thursday morning, the teachers are reinstating the work-to-rule campaign they suspended just last Friday.
"Right now we're no longer having conversations," said Cathi Siemieniuk, the director of education for the board.
"All negotiations have been suspended by Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. Provincially, they have been postponed by OSSTF, that's my understanding."
Until the two parties make the changes the ministry is asking for, the government will not approve the contract they negotiated last week.
"They did get back to us and they asked us to review and to add some tweaks to our tentative agreement," Siemieniuk added. "We haven't had the opportunity to speak with the OSSTF about those."
The president of the teachers union says there will be a province-wide meeting on Monday to discuss bargaining strategies and job action. Local OSSTF leaders have said they will not comment on the situation until after that time.