THUNDER BAY — Elementary and secondary school teachers working in Ontario's French-language public school system have given their union's bargaining team an overwhelming strike mandate.
The Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) represents 13,000 teachers and occasional teachers across the province, including about 100 working in Northwestern Ontario for the Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales, and 430 working across Northern Ontario for the Conseil scolaire du Grand Nord.
Its members voted 93 per cent in favour of a strike should negotiations with the provincial government and the Council of Trustees' Associations fail to generate a new collective agreement.
No date for a walkout has been set.
AEFO president Anne Vinet-Roy said the vote shows that Franco-Ontarian teachers intend to push back against what she described as the government's and CTA's offensives.
"We find their proposals unacceptable, as they limit support in the classroom and will worsen the critical teacher shortage. The survival of our French-language education system is at stake," Roy said.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he's disappointed that AEFO has chosen not to agree to send outstanding matters to binding interest arbitration, as other teacher groups have.
The province has reached deals with two bigger unions, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, but is still negotiating with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, whose bargaining team also has a strike mandate.
Those talks are scheduled to resume next month.
