OSSTF/FEESO Members in Greater Essex Announce Job Action

WINDSOR, ON--(Marketwired - September 24, 2015) - Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) teachers in District 9, Greater Essex, will begin a selective withdrawal of services against the Greater Essex County District School Board on Tuesday, September 29, unless a local collective agreement can be reached between OSSTF/FEESO and the board by that time.

Local leaders in OSSTF/FEESO District 9 said 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, Greater Essex, Secondary Teachers. "There are significant issues that we have been unable to address in the last few rounds of bargaining. Our goal is to ensure consistency and fairness in our collective agreement, and we'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, "We expect local agreements to mirror the central agreement that we reached in August with the government and the school boards' association, in which there were no strips and modest improvements for our 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."

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.