On a day when Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) members were striking across Simcoe County and announcing more job action planned for next week, Education Minister Stephen Lecce was in Barrie.
But not to talk about the turmoil surrounding ongoing negotiations.
Lecce was in the city Monday to discuss bullying in schools with local politicians and police, while ETFO members in Simcoe County were out with picket signs, with today being their day to strike as part of rotating job action.
BarrieToday spoke with Lecce at the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children on McDonald Street near downtown Barrie, not long after the ETFO announced a new round of strike action next week for many school boards, including those in Simcoe County.
Unless agreements are reached, rotating strike action will take place in Simcoe County on Wednesday, Feb. 4, followed by participation in the provincewide strike the following day, on Thursday, Feb. 5.
Lecce says he blames the other side for the stalemate at the negotiating table and the financial strain being put on families during the labour strife.
“I think it just demonstrates yet again the escalation driven by the teachers' union leaders,” he said. “It is having a negative impact on parents in this province, particularly here in Simcoe County and right across the region for many single parents and for many low-income families, among others.
“I’m asking them (the teachers' union) to focus those energies at the negotiation table and work with the government as we have done now with two unions," Lecce added.
Lecce also said he's waiting on the mediator to bring the parties back to the table and that he believes his side has always indicated they “remain available at all points to continue bargaining,” which is what parents deserve.
Janet Bigham, president of the ETFO's Simcoe County chapter, was on the picket line at Barrie's Maple Grove Public School on Monday. She told BarrieToday that it's the provincial government which is refusing to talk.
“I would suggest the government isn’t even coming to the table. Our last date was in December and we have no new date,” Bigham said. “They are not coming to the table and when they do, they send government reps with the basic message being that they’re not authorized to negotiate this and that.”
Both sides have conflicting stories as to what the job action boils down to.
Bigham says the main factor from her point of view is the need for smaller class sizes than what's being proposed.
“The kindergarten classes are staffed on average of 26 students to two educators, but can be upwards to 29 or more,” said Bigham. “We’ve all hosted a birthday party for our kids and had maybe 10 kids there. It gets pretty uncontrollable, right?
"Well, try it with 26 or 29 or more and that is what we want to prevent," she added. "We need as much one-on-one time with kids as possible and the proposed class sizes won’t do that.”
Last November, the provincial government passed a law that caps public-sector workers' salary increases at one per cent.
Lecce says the teachers' union has been pushing for an additional one per cent and doesn’t find it fair to give to them what they wouldn’t for others.
“The teacher union leaders have said if they don’t get and additional one per cent, which is equivalent to $750 million of tax dollars, they will continue striking,” Lecce said.
“For me, that is a problem and we think we are being reasonable and, objectively speaking, we pay high school teachers in this province $92,000 a year," he added. "That is just for pay. That is not including the pension and benefits and all that.”
Lecce maintains he's “open to innovative options" that bring classroom sizes down and believes they can collectively get there.
Bigham, who had only learned about Lecce being in Barrie a couple hours beforehand, told BarrieToday what she’d say to him if he showed up at the picket line.
“If the minister were to arrive here on this picket line, I’d be saying to him that we’re out here because we feel the need to be out here for the students, not because our provincial president said that Simcoe County is on the picket lines Monday,” Bigham said.
“Then I’d tell him to head to Toronto and be at the negotiating table himself and listen to what the issues are and get a deal done," she added.
Last Friday, Premier Doug Ford said he was losing his patience with the head of the union.
“I think the premier’s message is expressing a frustration on behalf of so many parents in the province who have seen this story before,” Lecce said. “To be frank, this isn’t the first time it has happened in a generation. It happens every three or four years.”
Bigham says she has seen this before, too, but she believes this round is a little more tense than past negotiations she has been a part of, but that parents are generally more behind the teachers in this circumstance.
“We’ve talked about this. With the honking and people coming up to us to give support, I think the public sees what wrong is being done here by the provincial government,” Bigham said. “Parents want their children to get the best possible education.
"We, as educators, can’t do that with a classroom of 29 kids or more. We want to teach, we want to be in the classroom with the kids and we will fight to get them the best education possible," she added.
