When Adrienne Plumley joins the picket line on Monday in Toronto — kick-starting a week of teacher strikes across the province not seen in more than two decades — she’ll do so believing in the power of collective action.

It’s something she learned as a teenager in Grade 10 walking with her teachers in the 1997 strike, when Ontario’s educators walked off the job for two weeks, making it the largest work stoppage in Canadian history.

“I think ’97 really showed for me how powerful collective action can be and that has really stayed with me,” said the Toronto teacher, adding it “made me more of an activist later on.”

“When that sort of organizing is happening and people are working together that can send a really strong message.”

Now a union steward at Kapapamahchakwew-Wandering Spirit School, and a picket captain, Plumley hopes educators across Ontario send a strong message to Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government, which is currently embroiled in contract negotiations with all four teachers’ unions.

Teachers say they’re determined to protect all-day kindergarten, want fair compensation and are opposed to larger classes and mandatory e-courses for secondary students. But the province says salary is a critical issue, noting it’s offering a one per cent increase yearly — in keeping with recent legislation limiting wage increases for public sector workers — while unions want about two per cent.

Each of the four teachers’ unions — collectively representing public elementary, public secondary, French and English Catholic educators — has launched work-to-rule campaigns and three are planning one-day strikes this week.

Each day this week, public elementary school teachers will hold strikes in different school boards, impacting Toronto on Monday. And on Tuesday, all Catholic elementary and secondary teachers in Ontario, along with public high school teachers in some boards, including Toronto, will hit the picket line.

On Sunday, the elementary teachers’ union announced one-day strikes for Bluewater and Ontario North East school boards for this Friday.

To compensate parents for child-care costs, some will be eligible to receive up to $60 per day, per student, from the government.

This week’s labour disruption would make it the largest strike action by teachers since 1997.

That’s when 126,000 teachers walked out, despite not being in a legal strike position, to protest the education reforms of Bill 160, which included centralizing the decision-making and funding for schools. The bill, introduced by the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government, was passed.

But the teacher demonstrations garnered much public support and some union members suggest that era helped sow the seeds for the activism seen by teachers today.

Plumley’s own activism pre-dates 1997. Her mother, a postal worker, and her grandfather, who managed a credit union, were active in their unions and as a young girl, she accompanied them to union meetings and picket lines.

But it wasn’t until she attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute and Bill 160 surfaced that she herself was compelled to take action. Many of her friends were upset with teachers because the strike meant missing out on trips, extracurricular activities and tournaments. But not her.

“I had conversations with my mom and my grandpa about what it really meant for (teachers) to go on strike, and I started doing my own research and understanding what exactly they were fighting for and it started to make me angry — not with the teachers, but with the government.”

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Then 15, she channelled that anger by showing up on the on the picket line outside her high school during those two weeks, much to the surprise of teachers.

“On some level, it just didn’t occur to me not to (participate),” she recalls. “There were a lot of students that joined the line.”

Plumley credits that experience with making her more attuned to ensuing labour disputes. As an adult, while working as an early childhood educator and then as a teacher for the Toronto District School Board, she got involved with her union — but in recent years has become much more active.

Nowadays, she feels like “the entire future of our education system” is at stake, which is why she’s been busy preparing for Monday and stockpiling protest signs in her home.

Compared with 1997, she believes today’s youth are even more involved, noting there are student-led social media accounts in support of teachers.

Plumley — she started the school year as a kindergarten teacher, but recently became an instructional leader for Indigenous education — worries Ontario’s full-day kindergarten is at risk. Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said he won’t change the program, but unions say the government refuses to put that in writing.

Also troubling for Plumley is the government’s plan to increase class sizes, and she wants assurances that students with special needs get the resources they need.

Particularly worrisome for educators is the government’s plan to increase high school class size averages to 25 — it’s now 22.5 — and to make it mandatory that those students take two online courses. Initially, the province wanted high school class size averages of 28, and four mandatory e-courses for secondary students.

Last week, Lecce reiterated to reporters that salary is a “critical issue on the table,” noting all four unions have launched court challenges of the public sector wage cap, which they argue violates their constitutional rights to unrestricted collective bargaining.

“They have opted to fight us on the streets and protest us in the streets,” said Lecce. “They have protested and fought us in the courts. Clearly, this is an issue that matters not to one, but to all of the teacher’s union leaders.”

Lecce says the province is prepared to return to the negotiating table, where talks have stalled with three unions.

In the meantime, Plumley hopes this week’s massive demonstrations send the province “a very clear message.”

“Collectively, we have made the effort to come to the table and bargain in good faith and the government has not done that. We’ve been left with no other choice, but to escalate to this level,” she said. “We’re prepared to do what needs to be done in the best interests of our students and our staff.”