The union representing Ontario’s public high school teachers will hold strike votes over the next month, saying talks with the provincial government are going nowhere.

A memo sent to the union’s 60,000 teachers and support staff Tuesday says negotiations will continue but there’s been “no indication that meaningful discussion will take place (so) the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation feels it now has no choice but to begin the process of conducting strike votes among its members across the province in the coming weeks.”

The votes are scheduled to be wrapped up by Nov. 15.

OSSTF president Harvey Bischof told the Star that to date, there have been five days of bargaining for teacher and support staff units.

“Most notably, (the government and school boards) have absolutely refused to deal with any of the substantive issues on the table,” he said.

This is the latest education flare-up for the provincial government, after a work-to-rule by the 55,000-member school support staff unit of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. That job action lasted a week before a three-year deal was reached Oct. 6, on the eve of a potential strike.

The province’s public elementary teachers are also in the midst of taking strike votes.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce urged the unions not to resort to job action.

“As families across our province know, strike action disproportionately hurts our kids, especially the most vulnerable in our classrooms,” he said in a statement. “Our message to our labour partners is always to put kids first, and continue to work with us in good faith to make sure kids remain in class each and every day.”

Bischof said the move should put pressure on the government as it did with CUPE, which represents custodians, office staff, educational assistants and early childhood educators.

“Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing they respond to,” Bischof said. “We’ve taken a very measured approach, and we saw how they responded at the other (CUPE) bargaining table and certainly there is a lesson in that.”

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is currently holding strike votes across the province, with the Toronto and York Region locals casting ballots Oct. 30.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association has taken part in 14 bargaining sessions and more are scheduled, said president Liz Stuart. No strike votes are planned as yet.

The CUPE deal provided $20 million a year to rehire laid off staff, and boosted special education supports for students by $58 million a year.

Given OSSTF also represents support staff, that should have prompted some movement at the table, Bischof said — unless the government wants less service for students at some boards.

NDP education critic Marit Stiles called it “really disappointing that it appears our government isn’t making education and negotiations a priority right now.”

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At the end of the day, she added, “the government needs to stop playing these games. They know what it takes to keep our students in schools.”

The province has already announced it wants to boost high school class sizes from an average of 22 to 28 over the next four years, and introduce four mandatory online courses at an average of 35 students per teacher, shedding thousands of teaching positions, classes and course options for teens.