1-day strike to go ahead as talks between province and OSSTF break off

#OneDayStrike; #OntarioSchools; #PCParty; #OSSTF

Ottawa, Dec 17 (Canadian-Media): A decision was taken by public high school teachers and education workers of 10 school boards in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to hold one-day strike on Wednesday after the contract talks between Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) and the province of Ontario broke off,  media reports said.

Stephen Lecce. Image credit: Twitter handle

In a statement, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce expressed his frustration and disappointed by the union's coming forward at the bargaining table with no new proposals, no changes to their position, and no ideas on how to advance negotiations.

Progressive Conservative (PC) government had been blamed by OSSTF for the lack of progress in their negotiations affecting the teachers who are without any contract, as their last contract expired at the end of August.

A spokesperson for the Ontario Public School Boards' Association had told CBC Toronto that negotiations will not begin again until January.

Union said the issues were class sizes, mandatory online courses and funding cuts, where as the Ontario education ministry said the main issue was compensation.

The school boards that will be affected with the strike on Wednesday are; Lakehead District School Board; Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board; Lambton Kent District School Board; Thames Valley District School Board; Waterloo Region District School Board; Waterloo Catholic District School Board; York Region District School Board; York Catholic District School Board; Halton District School Board; and Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. Several French school boards are also expected to be affected.