Another strike will hit a number of the province’s schools next Wednesday as the secondary teachers’ union plans for third, daylong job action — including in Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s York Region riding.

Some 12 boards will be impacted and because the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) also represents support workers and professional staff, the job action will shut down some elementary, French and Catholic schools across the province, too.

The move comes as the leaders of all four teacher unions say they are unsure of what the new year will bring, given little progress has been made at the bargaining table over the past five months.

Bargaining resumes for the OSSTF on Monday and Tuesday.

“We are hopeful that the minister is ready to get serious about bargaining next week, to come to the table in good faith and reverse his government’s devastating cuts to our students’ education system,” said Harvey Bischof, OSSTF president.

However, he told the Star, “I have to be realistic about what the prospects are given the minister’s position around quality of education issues.”

On Dec. 4, the OSSTF held a province-wide, one-day walkout for all 60,000 members, targeting nine boards, including the Toronto District School Board.

Lecce has encouraged the union to cancel past strikes, saying kids should be in school.

“OSSTF union leadership have made clear that they will continue to take job action — which hurts students most,” he said. “... We are calling on OSSTF to cease from continued job action, accept our offer of private mediation, stay at the table, and focus on improving learning in the classroom, not enhancing compensation for their members.”

A Ministry of Labour mediator is currently aiding in talks, and Lecce said a private mediator helped land an October deal with support staff represented by CUPE.

Lecce, who represents King-Vaughan, has said with teachers, the main sticking point is wages. OSSTF is seeking a raise equal to the cost of living — about two per cent this year — and the government offering one per cent, in line with recent wage-cap legislation it passed.

The four teacher unions recently launched court challenges arguing it was not about money, but about a government interfering with collective bargaining rights.

The OSSTF also opposes government plans to boost class size averages from 22 to 25 — down from an original proposal of jumping to 28 — and eliminate all class caps, as well as introduce two, mandatory e-learning courses.

Given the slow pace of talks, the high school teachers’ union and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario have also begun a work-to-rule campaign.

On Thursday in the legislature, Premier Doug Ford said he’s talked to many parents and teachers and “even they are fed up with it. Every three to four years, (union leaders) hold the province hostage. They hold the economy hostage. They hold the parents and the students hostage. There’s no predictability.”

He said “people want certainty … and this government will make sure that they have certainty. They’re going to make sure that the students have a safe place to go to school. We’re going to make sure that teachers are well compensated. They’re actually the highest-compensated teachers in the entire country” at about $90,000 a year on average.

NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles was pleased to hear more bargaining dates have been scheduled, “but hopefully in the next few days they actually roll up their sleeves, but they have to accept that their planned cuts to education … are extremely unpopular and not what Ontarians want.”

Rémi Sabourin, president of the l’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens, or AEFO, said for French boards, “it’s the same problem but different consequences.”

When there’s talk about class size “class size means less teachers ... but less teachers in the northern boards or a high school where there are 100 students and five teachers, that one less teacher is six less courses and what do the kids do? They look across the street to the English high school.”

For his 12,000 members, he said, “it’s the survival of some of our schools. So it is very important.”

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said his union and the province are “at opposite ends of the room” when it comes to key issues.

“We’ll see where that heads in the New Year,” he said.

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The unions are also fighting for the government to reinstate local priorities funding, which helped boards hire extra special education teachers and provide supports for students new to the country.

“All of those funds were just taken away” when contracts expired at the end of August, said Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.

“So boards started out with not having these monies, and they started off (the school year) not being able to offer (services) in the same way. There was an immediate impact on schools.”

The boards involved in next Wednesday’s OSSTF strike are: Lakehead, Thunder Bay Catholic, Lambton Kent, Thames Valley, Waterloo Region, Waterloo Catholic, York Region, York Catholic, Halton and Kawartha Pine Ridge, as well as a number of schools in Conseil scolaire de district catholique MonAvenir and Conseil scolaire Viamonde.