By Shawn Jeffords

TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford continued Friday to pressure the province’s teachers’ unions to hammer out new contracts with his government, just days after making what Ford called “tremendous concessions” on class size and online learning.

During a news conference in St. Catharines, Ont., Ford stressed that his government has been flexible in the tense contract talks with the unions, and he asked them to reciprocate.

“We’re being extremely, extremely fair to the teachers’ unions,” Ford said. “Again, we want them back in the classroom.”

Ford’s request came on the same day one of the province’s major teachers’ unions announced it was pausing rotating strikes until March 27.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation said it is pausing its rotating strikes starting next week to minimize the disruption to student activities scheduled around and during March break. That move would affect Sudbury-area students enrolled with the Rainbow District School Board.

OSSTF has been holding regular rotating strikes since late last year in a bid to pressure the Ontario government during contentious contract talks.

Instead of the rotating strikes, starting Monday the union will instead expand a work-to-rule campaign it has been engaged in since November.

As part of that service withdrawal, teachers will not complete activities like participating in some meetings, organizing professional development day seminars and working on course writing.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Conservative government offered to increase average high school class sizes from 22 last year to 23 next year — instead of the government’s original target of 28 — and allow an opt-out for e-learning courses the Tories previously said would be mandatory.

The premier said Friday those concessions should have paved the way to new agreements with the unions. But because it hasn’t yet resulted in progress, Ford said it shows the real issue keeping the parties from an agreement is teachers’ pay.

“Make no mistake about it, right from day one, we said this is all about benefits, it’s all about compensation,” Ford said.

The government has offered teachers a one per cent pay increase, while teachers are asking for closer to two per cent.

OSSTF President Harvey Bischof said the government’s moves on class size will still result in 1,800 teachers losing their jobs and thousands of courses being cut. The union currently has no dates to bargain with the government and Bischof urged Education Minister Stephen Lecce to order his negotiators back to the table.

“Parents, students and educators want the minister to engage in real, good-faith negotiations,” he said in a statement Friday. “Bargaining proposals need to be brought to the bargaining table, where they can be meaningfully discussed, not proclaimed from a podium.”

The province has been locked in contentious contract talks with all four major teachers’ unions since their contracts expired last summer.

The teachers’ unions have said they would not sign a deal that included class size increases and mandatory online learning — two of the cost-cutting measures the government said were necessary to balance the books.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association was in talks with the government Friday and did not immediately provide an update on those talks.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario said Thursday it does not currently have any talks with the government scheduled but will announce further job action on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2020.