Forcing secondary teachers off the picket lines and back to their classrooms will only inflame the tense labour situation, unions warned as the provincial government introduced legislation to end strikes in three Ontario boards.

The move comes as talk of work-to-rule escalated and is expected to hit more high schools across the province in the coming weeks.

“Angry — in a word. That’s the easiest thing for me to say,” said Dave Barrowclough, president of Durham’s District 13 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, referring to the Liberals’ back-to-work legislation.

His union local is one of three, along with Peel and Rainbow/Sudbury, affected by the Protecting the School Year Act, that isn’t expected to pass until Thursday after the NDP on Monday balked at giving it unanimous consent.

That means students won’t be back in class until Friday, or even early next week.

“These students are at risk of losing their year — their year is in jeopardy,” Premier Kathleen Wynne told reporters just hours after the arms-length Education Relations Commission ruled the school year was threatened for the 70,000 students in the three public school boards.

The Premier, elected with the support of Ontario’s teacher unions, said the NDP’s move is “very disappointing,” adding that there shouldn’t be “political wrangling” given the number of students impacted.

But NDP leader Andrea Horwath called the legislation “undemocratic” and accused the Liberals of not “treating this situation seriously for weeks and weeks on end now,” leading to the current chaos.

Paul Elliott, president of the provincial OSSTF, warned that the government’s move “actually has inflamed the situation.”

By the end of this week, Durham teens will have been out of school for six weeks, Sudbury, five and Peel, four.

While teens will soon be back in class, there’s no sign yet extracurriculars will return, and union locals, including Toronto, say discussions have been held about expanding job action similar to the work-to-rule now underway in Halton and Ottawa before the end of this school year, as well as for the fall when elementary and Catholic teachers will also be in a strike position.

Mississauga student Trevor Sookraj, president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, said “it’s a relief we’ll be going back to class, but we would have preferred a negotiated settlement because back-to-work legislation is obviously unpopular.”

“I think it’s come a week too late for some things, like running track and field — the qualifying meets were all last week,” added Grade 10 student Thomas MacIntosh of Whitby’s Donald A. Wilson Secondary School. “It’s definitely nice to be going back but I’m sad because we missed out on so much.”

New bargaining legislation sets out two levels of contract talks, with provincial negotiations covering big-money items such as class size and salary, and with local items up to individual boards and union districts to settle.

The three strikes were called over local issues, the union says, although a decision is pending from the Ontario Labour Relations Board as to whether they are legal under the new system.

Talks at the provincial level with the OSSTF and the public elementary teachers’ union have fallen apart.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, whose party supports the back-to-work legislation, said the Liberals’ “two-tier disaster” of parallel local and central negotiations is to blame for the upheaval.

Wynne admitted “it’s a tough environment” with the new way of bargaining.

“We’re dealing with an environment where there is no new money to put into compensation, and we knew it would be challenging,” the Premier said, adding boards and teachers’ unions had input into the new contract-making system.

“In terms of the process, it’s not over. We don’t have a deal yet. But we are at the table with (the Catholic teachers’ union) right now; (the elementary teachers’ union) has begun its process and so, yes, it’s been a challenge, but I still believe that having a collective bargaining process that is robust… is important.”

Janet McDougald, chair of the Peel District School Board, would have preferred a negotiated end to the strike, “however, having said that, I’m overjoyed to have students back in school.”

“Something had to happen, that’s for sure, and I’m glad the ministry saw the urgency of this.”

Teachers who disobey the back-to-work law will be fined $2,000 a day. Unions will face daily fines of $25,000.

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Boards are now looking to the ministry for some guidance on how to cram the missed curriculum into the remaining month of school — either by cancelling exams, modifying lessons or waiving the 110 hours required to earn a credit.

Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said mediation will now happen locally, followed by binding arbitration.

However, for the high school teachers’ union, the back-to-work order “is not going to be good news, and will only continue to solidify the very real differences we’ve had since starting to negotiate,” said Barrett, who is also chair of the Durham District School Board.