Ontario Teachers Start Work Action

Members of Ontario’s elementary and secondary teachers’ unions started a work action last Tuesday.

Contracts for the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers expired in August.

Adelina Cecchin, president of the Greater Essex Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, says teachers want to protect the things that make the Province’s schools “world class.”

She says teachers have a number of concerns, including that the government may want to increase class sizes.

“We’re looking for adequate levels of support for our students with special needs,” Cecchin says. “We’re looking for protection of the current kindergarten model that’s being delivered in our schools. And we’re also looking to this government to address the issue of violence that’s happening in our schools across the Province.”

Cecchin this first phase of the work action is administrative.

“We’re not going to be filing the first term progress reports,” she says.

Teachers also won’t be doing work to prepare for standardized tests. 

Cecchin says phase one of the work action does not impact students or school safety.

Click on the player above to hear WDET’s Sascha Raiyn talk about the teachers’ objectives.