Toronto high school teachers bargaining unit opposes deal with province that avoids strikes

Leaders of a bargaining unit that represents Toronto high school teachers say they are opposed to a proposed deal between their union and the province that would use voluntary binding arbitration, instead of a strike, to resolve outstanding issues.

In a message to its members on Thursday, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) Toronto Teachers' Bargaining Unit Executive said it doesn't support the proposed deal worked out in August by the Ontario education ministry and the provincial union executive. 

The deal "provides a pathway to resolve outstanding bargaining issues" that can include binding interest arbitration but cannot involve the use of strikes or lockouts. Under the deal, both sides would continue bargaining until Oct. 27, at which point they would enter into binding arbitration to resolve any remaining issues.

"We have concerns about voluntarily entering into a binding arbitration process that eliminates our right to strike or take other job actions such as selective withdrawal of services," the bargaining unit executive said in the message.

"The ability to strike or withdraw services is one of the cornerstones of the labour movement and has been hard fought over the years. To voluntarily give up that right has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for education workers and the entire labour movement."

OSSTF members are set to vote on the proposed deal in a provincewide online vote from Sept. 8 to 27.

The bargaining unit represents contract secondary teachers, adult day school teachers, and continuing education teachers in the secondary panel of the Toronto District School Board.

The bargaining unit said the "pathway" means union members will not be able to vote on a final agreement between the union and province because there would be no ratification vote. The proposed process is a "significant departure" from previous bargaining, it added.

"In essence, members are being asked to vote on an agreement before it is finalized," the bargaining unit executive said. 

"We are concerned that this might have a serious impact on solidarity, on our capacity to organize our members, and on building collective actions going forward."

The bargaining unit executive said it is not directing members on how to vote but it is sharing its concerns. It urged members to attend a town hall on the issue in Toronto on Sept. 20.

Deal would provide stability, province says

A spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, said in a statement on Thursday that the proposed deal would provide the public education system with "stability" while bargaining continues.

"We call on all remaining unions to agree to this framework to provide stability to Ontario parents with three uninterrupted years of learning for their children."

OSSTF president Karen Littlewood said she knew some members would like the proposal and some wouldn't, but the union will know when voting concludes Sept. 27 what members are thinking.

"I believe as the president, and my executive strongly believes, this is the best possible pathway for us to have a deal right now in September of 2023," she said.

Strike votes planned

Littlewood previously said the proposal establishes "a clear pathway forward in this round of bargaining that could potentially end in arbitration. If accepted, the proposal provides that there will be no job action or lockouts during this round of bargaining."

Littlewood has also said the proposal would also give OSSTF members a remedy for "wages lost" under a wage restraint law known as Bill 124. That 2019 law capped salary increases for teachers and other public sector workers to one per cent a year for three years.

If the proposal is rejected, negotiations would continue but the OSSTF would also take a strike vote to see if members want to exert the pressure of possible job action at the bargaining table, Littlewood said.

"We don't have to end up at an arbitrator," she said.

"I think it would be wonderful if the government took this as a sign and said, 'Yeah, you know what, let's put some substantial items on the table.'"

The unions representing public elementary teachers, English Catholic teachers and teachers in the French-language system all said they could not consider adopting that process at this time.