Windsor-Essex public high school teachers will begin a selective withdrawal of services on Tuesday, unless a local collective agreement can be reached.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation announced the plan against the the Greater Essex County District School Board on Thursday.
Local leaders in the Windsor-Essex OSSTF said in a news release, that a lack of meaningful progress at their local bargaining table is responsible for the decision to take job action.
"Our members have been without an agreement for more than a year," said Jeff Brosseau, president of OSSTF/FEESO District 9. "There are significant issues that we have been unable to address in the last few rounds of bargaining.
Brosseau says their goal is to ensure consistency and fairness in their collective agreement, and they're not going to achieve that “by accepting status quo or submitting to concessions.”
Jo Dean, OSSTF/FEESO executive officer and chair of the negotiations team said they expect local agreements to mirror the central agreement that they reached in August with the government and the school boards' association, in which there were no strips and modest improvements for their members.
“We have no intention of allowing the Greater Essex District School Board to undermine the intent of that deal through concessions at the local level," says Dean.
