Students will stay in class after OSSTF members vote in favour of agreement

In a significant development, the members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have voted in favour of a proposal aimed at resolving negotiations with the Ontario government.

This proposal involves incorporating binding interest arbitration into the process.

“I am very pleased that the members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation have voted in favour of this deal that keeps kids in class,” said Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Education.

“We came together to put 400,000 English public high school students first, and as a result, a student who started high school last year will now graduate in three years without the threat of strikes,” Minister Lecce added.

The proposal was adopted with 78.4 per cent support from OSSTF members.

“We are proud to announce that after a three-week long vote, open to all Members in the school board sector, OSSTF/FEESO members have voted to approve a proposal that will put all unresolved items before an independent, third-party arbitrator,” said OSSTF/FEESO President Karen Littlewood.

Local bargaining across the province will continue until March 28, 2024. The proposal stipulates that there will be no strikes or lockouts during this round of negotiations between the government and OSSTF/FEESO.

Instead, any unresolved issues from both central and local bargaining discussions will be subject to arbitration.

“Premier Ford can’t be trusted.”

“For over 14 months, we have tried to engage the Ford government in good faith bargaining but we haven’t had a partner at the table that cares about safeguarding our public education system.”

“Now we have the opportunity to bypass traditional bargaining pathways to secure a fair collective agreement,” Littlewood added.