January 8, 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians

This letter provides an important labour relations update regarding the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), which represents our Catholic teachers, who have been in a legal strike position since December 21, 2019. 

We have been informed today, that OECTA will begin administrative job action beginning on Monday, January 13, 2020 unless a tentative agreement is reached in provincial negotiations.  The administrative job action would include a partial withdrawal of services, which is not intended to affect classroom learning.  Teachers will not participate in EQAO related activities, Ministry of Education initiatives, staff and departmental meetings, or organized activities during Professional Development Days.  In addition, although they will enter student marks for report cards, they will not provide comments.  At this time, extracurricular activities and field trips, etc. are not affected.

In the event that no negotiated settlement is reached and OECTA proceeds with its administrative job action on Monday, you can expect to see information pickets outside of our schools. 

Under the province’s labour laws, OECTA is required to give the Board five days’ notice before escalating to a full withdrawal of services, or full strike action.  No such notice has been received as yet.  However, in the event of full strike action, student safety would be compromised and the Board would have no choice but to close all schools.  Further labour updates will be communicated to you directly and posted to the Board website at www.st-clair.net

In the meantime, we are hopeful that provincial bargaining scheduled for later this week will lead to a negotiated settlement, which is fair to all parties.

If you have any questions, please speak with your principal.

Sincerely,

Deb Crawford

Director of Education