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Ontario’s public high school teachers have been without a contract since August.

On Tuesday night, Education Minister Stephen Lecce asked the union to call off the strike, saying his bargaining team had presented a new “framework” to the union in a bid to keep all parties at the table.

But union president Harvey Bischof said the teachers had not been given anything new by a mediator, and no progress had been made for days.

The union announced last week that teachers could walk off the job in order to turn up the pressure during tense labour negotiations with the Progressive Conservative government.

The teachers are already conducting a work-to-rule campaign and say they are pushing back against government plans to increase class sizes and introduce mandatory e-learning courses.

“While we sympathize absolutely with students and parents facing disruption and anxiety, a single day strike doesn’t come close to the kind of disruption this government will wreak on the education system if they’re allowed to go forward with their destructive proposals,” Bischof said.

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The strike will call political attention to the cuts that this government has already imposed and wants to impose further, he said.

“We have seen this government change direction when faced with political opposition and so that’s our intention,” Bischof said.

School boards across the province said Tuesday they would be forced to close their high schools because of the job action. At some boards where the union represents both teachers and education workers, both high schools and elementary schools would be closed.