OSSTF/FEESO Ottawa Student Transportation Authority Bargaining Unit Reaches a Tentative Deal

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec. 19, 2013) - Today, members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) Ottawa Student Transportation Authority-Educational Support Professionals (OSTA-ESP) Bargaining Unit ratified a tentative deal with their employer.

The fifteen OSTA-ESP workers arrange and coordinate transportation for over 60,000 students in the Catholic and Public-English schools in the Ottawa-Carleton area as well as for deaf, blind, and deaf-blind students enrolled in the Provincial Schools around the province.

"I am pleased that our bargaining team was able to reach a deal before the Christmas holidays," said OSTA-ESP Bargaining Unit President Nancy Akehurst. "We have worked hard to reach an agreement on behalf of our members who have been without a contract since August 2012. Without the support of our members this would not have been possible."

"Reaching a deal at this point shows that the collective bargaining process in Ontario works," said OSSTF/FEESO President, Paul Elliott. "Our goal has always been to bargain a fair deal for our members, and the deal reached in Ottawa shows that policies and legislation that interfere or limit the legal collective bargaining process, including last year's Bill 115, are both unnecessary and unwarranted."

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.