Ontario’s Catholic teachers to hold 2nd one-day, provincewide strike next week

Ontario’s English Catholic teachers have announced they will hold a provincewide strike next Tuesday.

This will be the second one-day strike by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association amid stalled contract talks.

OECTA president Liz Stuart says she knows Ontarians are growing impatient, but the teachers can’t let the government wear them down and accept cuts.

Teachers’ unions, including OECTA, are opposed to class size increases and mandatory e-learning requirements imposed by the government, but Education Minister Stephen Lecce has framed compensation as the key issue for all teachers’ unions.

OECTA’s news comes a day after the union representing public elementary teachers announced it will ramp up its rotating strikes next week.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario says it will stage a provincewide strike once a week — with the first one set for Thursday, Feb. 6 — and each board where it has members will be hit by a one-day rotating strike as well.

CBC