Cole Burston/THE CANADIAN PRESS Striking teachers picket outside the Toronto District School Board head office in Toronto on Dec. 4, 2019. Ontario's education minister says wages are the sticking point in collective bargaining.

TORONTO — Ontario’s elementary teachers start a week of rotating one-day strikes Monday, shutting down schools in three boards. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is holding its first strikes Monday at school boards in York Region, Toronto and Ottawa-Carleton. The strikes will hit different boards each day this week as tensions escalate between the union and the province. All four major teachers’ unions are engaged in job action as they negotiate new collective agreements with the Progressive Conservative government. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is holding a one-day strike at some boards on Tuesday, as is the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.

The unions say that class sizes and cuts to services are the roadblocks in bargaining, while Education Minister Stephen Lecce insists they’re stuck on wages. Only the union representing teachers in Ontario’s French school system has contract talks scheduled with the government, even as they began a work-to-rule campaign last week. As the unions ramp up their labour action, the province has sought to strike back. The government announced last week that it would compensate parents affected by the elementary teacher strikes. Watch: Premier Doug Ford blames union leaders for the teacher strikes. Story continues below.