Ontario teachers confirm 1-day walkout

Canada's largest school board has received official word that its elementary teachers will walk out on Tuesday for a one-day strike, along with those from seven other boards.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario issued a statement Saturday morning to provide the promised 72 hours notice before pulling the Toronto District School Board's more than 10,000 teachers out of their classrooms.

Hundreds of thousands of Ontario students will have to stay home next week as elementary teachers across Ontario stage one-day strikes, including a massive walkout in Toronto.

The union says teachers from the Durham, Peel, Greater Essex, Near North, Grand Erie, Waterloo Region and Lambton-Kent boards will also be off the job on Tuesday.

Teachers in the Hamilton area are set to walk out Monday, along with those at three school boards in northern Ontario.

The walkouts are in protest against a controversial law, Bill 115.

The teachers say the legislation — which will impose new contracts on most of the province's teachers in January — takes away their bargaining rights, reduces benefits and freezes wages.

The Liberals have said they will not interfere in the one-day strikes as long as proper (72-hour) warning is given to parents and schools.

On Friday Education Minister Laurel Broten called the strikes "an incredibly disappointing development" that puts teachers, students and their families in the middle of the union's dispute with the government.