Elementary teachers were determined to strike no matter what, Education Minister Liz Sandals says.

On Tuesday, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario informed Sandals that it would begin a job action next Monday — probably in the form of a work-to-rule.

“It just seems be a general desire to have a strike,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park, adding the union’s conditions to stay at the central bargaining table were “pretty unrealistic.”

ETFO’s intentions come at a time when public high school teachers with three boards have already hit the bricks, with the possibility they could be joined by another four boards, affecting about 130,000 teens in total.

The way bargaining is now structured, costly issues such as class size or salary are dealt with in central talks between the government, the school boards’ associations and the provincial unions while individual school boards and union locals are to hammer out non-monetary items.

Sandals said she was upset to hear elementary teachers with the English boards plan to refuse to administer standardized testing, prepare report cards or attend professional development. “Obviously all those things would be of great concern to me,” she said.

David Clegg, who heads the York Region Teacher Local and is a former ETFO president, called the new bargaining system “fatally flawed” and predicts a “drawn out and increasingly bitter conflict.”

With teacher strikes and job action closing in around her, Premier Kathleen Wynne promised to light a fire under negotiations so students don’t lose their school year.

High school teachers in Durham, Peel and the Sudbury area are on strike, affecting 67,000 students. The Durham strike is now in its third week.

“I know it’s a difficult situation, but the only thing I can do is get that deal. It is my responsibility to light whatever fires I need to light under our folks to get that deal and get it in a way that fits within our parameters,” Wynne told reporters.

The Liberal government is demanding teachers accept a zero wage increase unless they can find the savings to finance a raise.

Wynne explained that the Education Relations Commission, not the government, decides if the school year is in jeopardy. She said, however, steps are being taken for high schools students headed to Ontario colleges and universities to see that their plans don’t fall flat.

The ministry of education is also in touch with out-of-province universities to “look at flexibility in the application process,” said spokesperson Nilani Logeswaran.

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As for the elementary teachers taking job action, Wynne said she will cross that bridge when she comes to it. “I am not going to speculate on what may happen on Monday,” she said.

Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said the union appears to be sending “a strong message in the sense that it’s all about ministerial initiatives” — telling teachers not to write report card comments, take part in ministry meetings during or outside of school hours and avoid other ministry-driven activities.

Barrett also said that despite reports the school boards are seeking to get rid of class caps, “there is no proposal on the provincial table that has anything to do with class sizes, in any way, shape or form” with ETFO.

Opposition critics say the blame for the faltering talks rests entirely with the Liberals.

“I have said from day one she (Sandals) is not treating this seriously . . . and we are going to see more and more boards go out. And the impact here is on the students and their parents. Those are the real losers here,” Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop said.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath accused the Liberals of setting the talks up to fail by preaching austerity.

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