OSSTF/FEESO Teachers Ratify Central Agreement

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - September 18, 2015) - Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) members have ratified the central collective agreement for teachers and occasional teachers that was reached between OSSTF/FEESO, the government of Ontario, and the Ontario Public School Boards' Association (OPSBA) on August 20. Ratification required a majority of total votes cast by OSSTF/FEESO teacher and occasional teacher members, as well as approval in a majority of bargaining units across Ontario.

"Our members may have ratified this deal," said OSSTF/FEESO President Paul Elliott, "but they remain frustrated and angry that the school boards of this province, through OPSBA, were so brazenly determined to gut our collective agreements and to attack our working conditions."

"In the end we were able to fend off OPSBA's assault on our agreements and on the learning conditions of our students. But it's not lost on our members that their employers had every intention of stripping away, in a single round of negotiations, virtually every gain we have made through decades of bargaining," continued Elliott.

"Over 20,000 of our support staff members have been without a contract for over a year now. We fully expect the government and the school boards to resolve this situation when we return to the bargaining table on September 23rd," concluded Elliott.

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.