Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Paul Elliott says the two sides will discuss next week ‘if there’s enough common ground to get back to the bargaining table.’
The union representing Ontario's high school teachers is planning "informal talks" with the province next week to discuss a return to contract extension negotiations.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation is the only education union to have not yet agreed to extend their current deals to 2019 — past next year's provincial election.
They had previously been in talks with the Liberal government, and now union president Paul Elliott says the two sides will discuss next week "if there's enough common ground to get back to the bargaining table."
Elliott says there are only a few outstanding issues.
Ontario's French teachers and education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees have ratified their two-year contract extensions, with English Catholic teachers, elementary teachers and other support workers still to vote on their tentative deals.
Radio-Canada has reported that the French teachers' deal will see them get four per cent in raises over the two years as well as a 0.5-per-cent lump sum payment. Those are the same compensation terms as in the CUPE deal as well as the English Catholic teachers' and elementary teachers' tentative agreements.