Mountain Resort to protest the stalled negotiations 
and the government’s failure to remove objection-
able contract demands. At the same time, ETFO’s 
Communications and Political Action service area 
supported local engagement with MPPs and trust-
ees regarding the central table bargaining impasse.

On June 13, GTA locals and ETFO organized a 
mass picket at OPSBA’s annual meeting to pro-
test the proposed strips to collective agreement 
provisions that were fairly negotiated over the 
last decade. For the second week in a row, bus-
loads of ETFO members descended on the Blue 
Mountain resort, this time to publicly give OPSBA 
a failing grade in bargaining.

As bargaining stalemates continued to the end of 
the school term, the Ontario Teachers’ Federation  
(OTF) affiliates held a number of meetings to dis-
cuss further solidarity and possible action for the 
fall. Their message to the media and public was 
that “things will not be normal this fall in schools” 
if the government and OPSBA don’t change their 
approach to central bargaining. 

Teacher and Occasional 

Teacher Local Bargaining

Under the legislation, once the central item list has 
been determined, local bargaining may commence 
and proceed concurrently with central bargaining. 
On January 14, ETFO notified OPSBA that ETFO 
local bargaining would commence on or after 
February 23 for teacher and occasional teacher 
bargaining units. Working with negotiators from 
ETFO’s Collective Bargaining service area, locals 
then began local bargaining, which progressed 
through the spring despite the lack of progress 
at the central table. Under the Act, local tentative 
Minutes of Settlements may not be signed off and 
ratified until central table terms have been signed 
off and ratified.

DECE/PSP/ESP Central 

Bargaining Table

ETFO, OPSBA, the Ontario Catholic School 
Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) and the govern-
ment met on January 20 to continue to attempt to 
reach agreement on central table items.

All central table items were agreed upon with the 
exception of two; it was ETFO’s position that the 
matter of student supervision and the equitable 
assignment of supervision should be negotiated 
centrally. The other side disagreed. As per the pro-
visions of the Act, ETFO referred the matter to the 
Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) for determi-
nation on whether the matters were to be negoti-
ated centrally or locally. Until that decision had been 
determined, neither central bargaining nor local 
bargaining for ETFO’s education support profession-
als could commence under the confines of the Act. 

The matter was heard before Vice-Chair Mary 
Anne McKellar on May 20. Two days later, the 
OLRB ruled that student supervision and the 
equitable assignment of supervision were not 
central matters therefore these are issues to be 
bargained locally. With this decision, the central 
list was finalized, allowing ETFO to commence 
local bargaining for Designated Early Childhood 
Educators, Educational Support Personnel, 
Professional Support Personnel and other sup-
port staff members. 

Photo: Vivian McCaffrey

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO

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Protecting Our Profession