ETFO strike plans impacting Near North Board this week and next

Classes for all JK to grade 8 students at the Near North Board are cancelled today and tomorrow.

It’s because of today’s one-day rotating strike and tomorrow’s province-wide picket by the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

The union has also announced details on next week’s job action.

The elementary teachers are planning a province-wide strike next Tuesday with a one-day strike at the Near North Board on Valentines Day.

Meantime, union president Sam Hammond says they were close to a deal with the government before talks broke off last week.

He says government negotiators changed positions at the last minute and tabled proposals the union couldn’t accept.

Hammond says the two sides had been close to an agreement on three or four key issues.

He also says salary was not addressed during the three days of talks.

Educaton Minister Stephen Lecce says they have put forward reasonable proposals, including a commitment to maintain full-day kindergarten.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath is calling for Lecce to be fired amid escalating job action by Ontario’s teachers.

Horwath says the province needs a new education minister who can resume talks with cuts to education off the table, but a spokeswoman for Premier Doug Ford says Lecce will not be replaced.

(With files from The Canadian Press)
(File photo by Chris Dawson/BayToday.ca)