Grudgingly, according to the news reports, Ontario's 73,000 elementary school teachers have accepted "the provinces final contract offer". But, we're not out of the woods yet.
The accepted "framework agreement" doesn't mean that the bargaining is done. In fact, the Federation and the local boards will go at it and the Federation has indicated that they want the Board's to table their final offers today and be ready to bargain or they will hold strike votes.
According to the Globe and Mail article the president of the Federation has said:
The accepted "framework agreement" doesn't mean that the bargaining is done. In fact, the Federation and the local boards will go at it and the Federation has indicated that they want the Board's to table their final offers today and be ready to bargain or they will hold strike votes.
According to the Globe and Mail article the president of the Federation has said:
"If they [school boards] choose to waste precious time attempting to
negotiate strips into our local collective agreements, our members will
be forced to take strike action," he said yesterday.
There are a few other reports available at this point including in the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto Star. The London Free Press and Windsor Star emphasize that the framework agreement is only the first step (albeit a big one, to be fair) but that strike action might still result at the local level if issues can't be sorted out with individual boards.
