Area high school educators set to strike next week

Algoma District School Board and Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board employees represented by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) will engage in another one-day full withdrawal of services on Thursday, Feb. 13.

Area locations affected will be as follows:

All OSSTF/FEESO members employed by the following school boards will be engaged in the full withdrawal of services:
    •    Algoma District School Board
    •    Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board

Those members employed by the Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l’Ontario at the following worksites will be engaged in the full withdrawal of services:
    •    École publique Écho-les-Rapides (Sault Ste-Marie)
    •    École publique l’Escalade (Wawa)
    •    École publique d’Elliot Lake (Elliot Lake)
    •    École secondaire Villa Française des Jeunes (Elliot Lake)
    •    École secondaire d’Orée des Bois (Dubreuilville)
    •    École publique Franco-Manitou (Manitouwadge)

Those members employed by the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario at the following worksites will be engaged in the full withdrawal of services:
    •    École Saint-Joseph Blind River
    •    École Sacré-Cœur (Chapleau)
    •    École St-Joseph (Dubreuilville)
    •    École Georges Vanier (Elliot Lake)
    •    École Saint Nom de Jésus (Hornepayne)
    •    École Notre-Dame-du-Sault (Sault Ste-Marie)
    •    École Sainte-Anne (Spanish)
    •    École Saint-Joseph (Wawa)
    •    École secondaire catholique Jeunesse-Nord (Blind River)
    •    École secondaire catholique Trillium (Chapleau)
    •    École secondaire Notre-Dame-du-Sault (Sault Ste-Marie)
    •    École secondaire Saint-Joseph (Wawa)  

The following is full text of a news release issued today by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation:

On Thursday, Feb. 13, education workers and teachers represented by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) in certain school boards will take part in another one-day, full withdrawal of services in selected locations across Ontario.

OSSTF/FEESO members in other school boards across the province will continue to engage in activities that draw attention to the dangers of the Ford government’s education agenda.

A limited withdrawal of services, which has been in place since November, will continue province-wide.

OSSTF/FEESO President Harvey Bischof has repeated the Federation’s standing offer to postpone pending job actions if the government agrees to return to, and maintain, the class size ratios and staffing levels that were in place in Ontario schools during the 2018-2019 school year.

“We continue to take an approach designed to raise awareness of the issues while causing minimum disruption to learning,” said Bischof. “Sadly, our measured approach stands in stark contrast to the almost-daily stream of inflammatory statements and disinformation from the Minister of Education.”

“Despite the Minister’s constant misrepresentation of the issues in the public sphere, we are prepared to go back to the bargaining table as soon as the government is ready for meaningful and forthright discussions about the issues that matter to Ontario’s students and the quality of their education,” concluded Bischof.