High school teachers still stinging after a year-long battle with the provincial government say they feel betrayed by their former union president’s jump to the Liberals, and they demand that their new union leader condemn the move.

Ken Coran, former president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, announced last week he will run for the Grits in the London West byelection. The news shocked many teachers, who finally ratified a contract in April after a lengthy stand-off with the Liberal government.

“You can’t slap somebody in the face with one hand and turn around and shake their other hand,” said Toronto teacher Katia Berdichevsky. “I find it unbelievably disconcerting that this person who has been telling us to stay strong and rally on all of a sudden turns coats.”

Although the relationship between teachers and the province has improved since Premier Kathleen Wynne took office in February, many union members still feel unfavourably towards the party, which imposed contracts on them in January under Bill 115.

Some teachers fear that Coran — often seen as more conciliatory than other teachers’ union leaders — allowed political ambitions to interfere with negotiations.

“I’d like to say I felt shock, horror, but in a certain sense I saw it coming,” said recently retired teacher Tim Heffernan, still a member of the union. “The nicey-nicey game bothered me a little bit.”

Heffernan said the recently ratified contract, supported by 84 per cent of the vote, was sold as “the best we could get.” The agreement boosted sick day payouts to newer teachers and reduced the number of unpaid days off.

But Coran, who officially accepted his nomination Tuesday, said the opportunity to run for the Liberals only came up in the first week of June and had no bearing on earlier negotiations.

“Anybody that was part of the negotiations knows that I worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week to try to finalize that,” he said. “Were there different strategies some people wanted us to use? Certainly there were. But we went back to the bargaining table. We worked out a deal.”

Coran said he has heard from teachers who support his decision, as well as those who remain suspicious of the Liberals. However, he insists Wynne’s leadership is a “new regime.”

“Her values are to be fair to people, to respect people and to be inclusive to people. That’s why I decided to run when the opportunity presented itself.”

Some teachers are now calling on new OSSTF president Paul Elliott to publicly distance himself from Coran and state that the union will not support him.

“Many of us are feeling very, very confused and dumbfounded by the silence and are waiting on some real leadership to say, ‘No, this is not acceptable,’ ” said Berdichevsky.

Elliott is out of the country and did not reply to emails. OSSTF spokeswoman Lori Foote refused to comment, except to say: “Ken Coran is retired from OSSTF.”

The union helped launch a court challenge against Bill 115 last year, arguing that the legislation violated teachers’ bargaining rights. Coran said he declared in his nomination papers that he is still a part of that challenge and expects to go to trial in the fall.

“I still feel very strongly that there were violations in that process. I will always stand by the fact that I feel that way, and I don’t want that mistake to happen ever again.”

Coran has already been dogged by controversy in the London West riding, including allegations he helped NDP candidate Peggy Sattler with her campaign as recently as a few weeks ago.

He told the Star that his job as a union leader was to liaise with all parties and he helped Sattler as a friend. “I believe friendship goes beyond party lines,” he said.

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