Bargaining standstill gets teachers marching

OSSTF members in Peel went on strike on Monday, joining high school teachers in Sudbury and Durham on the picket lines.

But even though the Sudbury teachers have been on strike for a week, OSSTF District 3 president James Clyke said no new bargaining dates have been set. The union isn't due to bargain with the Rainbow board again until mid-May.

“We're trying to bring some attention to the inert state of collective bargaining,” Clyke said.

During a rally held in front of the Rainbow board's downtown office, Clyke said during the few days OSSTF has bargained with the board so far, Rainbow has wanted to discuss issues that are supposed to be bargained provincially.

He also said the board is attempting to get more control over what teachers do in the classroom, calling it an “affront to our professional judgement.”

“Many of those individuals have never seen the inside of a classroom,” he said. “How are they going to tell us what to do in a classroom?”

Clyke said Rainbow is pressuring teachers to have unnaturally high pass rates in their classrooms.

“If you don't get those numbers, there's a problem in your classroom, they start questioning your pedagogy.”

Among those participating in the march were Sudbury Secondary School students Janel Strum and Janine Proulx.

Although Strum, a Grade 11 student, said she misses school, she also supports her teachers.

“They deserve to be working under a fair collective agreement, which they haven't been lately,” she said.