4000 teachers hit the picket lines in Simcoe County

Elementary teachers strike 4000 teachers took to the picket lines in Simcoe County, CTV’s Mike Arsalides reports.

A total of 4000 elementary teachers and educators across Simcoe County walked off the job for the first time in 8 years; nearly 38,000 students were affected.

The teachers’ union strike happened 5 months after the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) collective agreement with the province expired; negotiations, on a new deal, have since stalled with Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

“This is something we don’t do,” said ETFO Simcoe County president Janet Bigham. “We're only out here today because we have no other choice.”

The union's 83,000 members across Ontario are threatening another full week of rotating strikes; it will be the third consecutive week of job action.

“They’re angry quite frankly at the government for making the cuts that they're making,” said ETFO president Sam Hammond. “They would much rather be in a classroom.”

Educators believe proposed cuts to funding will lead to larger classes and greater challenges for vulnerable students.

“You're going to have fewer teachers in the classroom, you’re going to have less supports for our students with special needs and our students who struggle,” said Tracy Sopha from the picket line in Orillia.

Teacher Tracy Woodbury said the cuts proposed will hurt early childhood education and result in jobs being lost. The union has stated more than 100 jobs could be lost locally.

“We don’t care about the money, we want smaller class sizes. We don't want to lose our kindergarten teachers,” said Woodbury.

Teachers said the government has failed to return to the bargaining table since December.

“They’re obviously not getting the message,” said educator John Stein. “There have been over 150 days available since our contract expired and we still don't have anyone coming to the table who's willing to negotiate.”

Minister Lecce said the union has hurt students with its continued escalation of job action.

“The teachers' union has an opportunity, the leadership has an opportunity to invoke private mediation; they've rejected that,” said Lecce. “It's fair to disagree. It's fair to bargain hard. It's unfair to have children to have children be the victim of that disagreement...So I’m urging them to cease the escalation.”

“They’re not negotiating in a way that is going solve this problem,” said teacher Kim Lundquist in Midland.

The minister said he's waiting on word from the mediator in place to signal a return to the bargaining table with a province-wide strike slated for Thursday Feb. 6.