THUNDER BAY – A new deal is just needing ratification between Lakehead Public Schools and the Lakehead members of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO).
President Dave Paddington said Wednesday that there are a few steps needed to put the deal in place, which would be the first for his members in 18 months.
“Ratification is 50 per cent plus one, and I don't anticipate that will be an issue,” Paddington said.
“I think once our membership sees the details of our local deal, they'll be very pleased. They too recognize that we are fortunate to have such a strong relationship with our local board, which is not the case everywhere in the province.
"I expect there will be local agreements that will be well into next year where they're still negotiating, whereas we're done and comfortable with the deal and I think our board is too.”
There are two tiers of bargaining when it comes to education deals with Queen’s Park dealing with the financial side of things while Paddington and his team look at workers’ rights.
In December, Ontario’s public elementary teachers ratified their agreement with the provincial government with the assistance of a conciliator appointed by the Ministry of Labour.
ETFO stated that the agreement included a remedy for two of the three years of constrained wages under a law known as Bill 124, with the resolution for the third to be decided at arbitration.
Paddington went on to say, “We just have to wait for the actual arbitration on the numbers and then locally as soon as we ratify next week, the terms of the deal that we've just agreed on will be immediately put in place.”
When asked about specifics in the deal, Paddington said “There’s an acknowledgement from the board for things like prep time payback. Some of the travel time consolidations and we've got also some further acknowledgement of time with parent-teacher interviews. I think these are big things for teachers that will be very well received and I think they're appropriate.
"People's time is extremely valuable, especially in the teaching world where things are minute to minute. And we're very pleased that our board's taken that stance.”
Members will vote to ratify the deal on Wednesday, January 17th.
