Teachers across Ontario stage walkout this week

Bluewater teachers hit the picket lines Teachers hit the picket lines in the Town of the Blue Mountains on Monday.

It's shaping up to be another week of scrambling for thousands of parents of children whose teachers are planning to escalate strike action.

Contract talks between the province and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario collapsed Friday with ETFO saying its teachers would walk out at each board twice a week, starting Monday.

The school boards to be hit by elementary strikes today include Bluewater, Trillium Lakelands, Grand Erie, Halton, Ontario North East, Renfrew County and Superior-Greenstone.

On Tuesday, all English Catholic teachers in Ontario will hit the picket lines. Elementary teachers and support staff in Upper Grand, Peel and Durham school boards will hold a one-day strike and select schools in the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir school board will also be closed to students.

All elementary schools in the Simcoe County District School Board will be closed on Wednesday, along with Kawartha Pine Ridge, Keewatin-Patricia, Lakehead, and Penetanguishene Protestant Separate School Board.  This also affects grade 7 and 8 students at Elmvale District High School and Stayner Collegiate Institute.

On Thursday, teachers and support staff walk off the job provincewide.

Locally, on Friday the York Region School Board will hold strike action if no deal is reached.

All four major teachers' unions have been without contracts since Aug. 31, and are all engaged in some form of job action. High school teachers announced last week they would resume their weekly rotating strikes on Tuesday, after not holding any during last week's exam period.

Unions representing English Catholic teachers and teachers in the French system have bargaining scheduled this week.

Unions are asking for wage increases of around two percent to keep up with inflation, but the government passed legislation last year capping wage hikes for all public sector workers to one percent for three years. The teachers' unions and several others are fighting it in court, arguing it infringes on collective bargaining rights.

The teachers' unions have said the introduction of mandatory e-learning and an increase in class size remains the major issues at the bargaining table, despite the government making changes to both proposals.

ETFO represents 83,000 elementary public school teachers, occasional teachers and education professionals across the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2020.

With files from CTV Barrie