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."

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, they have absolutely refused to deal with any of the substantive issues on the table," he said.

While the "government claims that it wants to resolve these negotiations quickly ... from the beginning they have done nothing to help expedite the process, and now they are simply refusing to discuss substantive issues at the bargaining table," he said in the memo.

"They delayed the start of bargaining by two months and have thrown procedural roadblocks in the way ever since."

Last week, Bischof said the government was sending mixed messages.

"Publicly, the Minister of Finance (Rod Phillips) has stated that an agreement already reached in the education sector should be seen as guide for outstanding agreements. But at the bargaining table we are being told that the content of other agreements has no impact on our discussions," Bischof also said in the memo, referring to a deal with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

"Consequently, while the government and the trustee associations drag their feet, students across the province have lost access to mandatory courses, are being crammed into classrooms, sometimes with 40 or more of their peers, and are going without the critical support staff they need to succeed."

The union plans to wrap up the strike votes by Nov. 15.

He said the move should put pressure on the government at the table as it did with CUPE, which held strike votes and launched a work-to-rule campaign before reaching a three-year deal on Oct. 6, the eve of a walkout.

"It is absolutely meant to escalate the pressure," Bischof also said. "Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing they respond to. 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."

For this round of bargaining, the OSSTF has taken the unusual step of making its proposals — and those of the government and school boards — public, by posting all documents online.

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario is currently holding strike votes across the province, wrapping up at the end of this month with the Toronto and York Region locals voting Oct. 30.

All teacher unions, including the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association, remain at the bargaining table.

Last week, Phillips told reporters there are "limits" to what the government can afford, and pointed to the recent CUPE contract that caps wages for its 55,000 members at 1 per cent a year over the three-year deal.

The province has previously proposed legislation to cap all public-sector wage increases at that level.

The OSSTF is seeking a cost-of-living increase, which would be roughly 2 per cent this year.

The CUPE deal also maintained sick-leave days and pay at the same rate — 11 days at 100 per cent and another 120 days of short-term disability at 90 per cent.

The province has said it is seeking to reduce the short-term disability rate for teachers to 60 per cent of pay.

The CUPE deal also provided funds to rehire laid off staff, and to boost special education supports for students.

Given OSSTF also represents support staff — as CUPE does — that should have prompted some movement at the table, Bischof said, unless the government wants lesser levels of services for students at different boards.

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Last Wednesday, Education Minster Stephen Lecce told reporters "we are negotiating in good faith" with teacher and education unions, and "we hope to land deals with all those federations. We think it is very important that we have stability in the sector."

Lecce said he has urged all parties to "make students the centre of our focus."