All teachers in publicly funded Catholic district school boards across Ontario will be on strike and certain schools, including the Toronto District School Board, will be striking with OSSTF. Friday’s joint legal strike is the first in the history of education unions in Ontario. Due to the vast impact this strike, and the mainstream media’s lack of balance in the coverage (often siding with the unions and tecahers), Ontario’s teachers are among the best paid in the country. Due to breaks in the school year, teachers are Premier Doug Ford has offered numerous concessions to the teachers’ unions from the government’s initial demands. This hardly unreasonable request, however, created some tension with the teachers’ unions. Ontario secondary school teachers are in the midst of their first strike since 1997. Copyright © Teachers in Ontario have it pretty good. The Ontario teachers’ strikes are proving to be more acrimonious than anyone expected. Not only do they get paid a wage that is far higher than the average Ontarian, they also get a lot of time off. “The government has been reasonable and the union has not made moves to reciprocate.”Lecce said the government has agreed to not increase classroom size for the new school year in the fall and that a 1% increase for compensation has been agreed upon.“The unions have known about this plan for weeks but have not agreed because they want a considerable enhancement to their benefits package and want hiring practices based on seniority and not merit,” Lecce said.When it comes to e-learning, Lecce said it’s up to parents, not the unions, to decide if students should take the online classes, which offer more STEM and digital literacy courses.The Minister of Education called on teachers to “cease strike escalation” with this deal in mind and to provide “predictability for parents.”According to Liz Stuart, President of OECTA, the union has informed the mediator that negotiations can resume on Wednesday and can continue to bargain on Thursday and Friday if the discussions are productive.“Despite constantly claiming they are available 24/7, and their priority is to keep students in class, the government has yet to accept our offer,” Stuart said in a statement.“Catholic teachers are fed up with this government’s games and spin. Ontario’s teacher’s have a pretty great job. The Ontario teachers’ strikes are proving to be more acrimonious than anyone expected. January 22, 2020 5:29 PM 3 mins reading. While our preference has always been to keep details of negotiations at the bargaining table, the repeated misrepresentations by Premier Ford, Minister Lecce, and other members of this government are undermining the bargaining process,” she said.The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is not engaging in any strikes this week, but said that if contract deals are not made by “Ontario faces a very serious threat to our world-renowned public education system with the Ford government’s damaging cuts,” Sam Hammond, ETFO President said in a “The Ford government has planned to cut 10,000 teachers, decreased per pupil funding, refused to provide adequate funding for students with exceptionalities and avoided bargaining in good faith with the province’s educators.