Two of the public school boards in Ontario think there might be a way to break the teacher boycott in elementary schools. Why it took so long to figure this out is beyond me but the board lawyer's will argue before the Ontario Labour Relations Board tomorrow that the union is breaching the Education Act.

Specifically the section which defines "strike" as "any action or activity by teachers in combination or in concert or in accordance with a common understanding that is designed or may reasonably be expected to have the effect of curtailing, restricting, limiting or interferring with normal activities of a board or its employees" the operation of schools or one or more programs in schools.

The boards contend that what teachers are doing goes beyond just not coaching after school they're boycotting traditional overnight field trips;  they're not filling in for principals who are off sick, and some are refusing to organize graduation or collect money for hot lunch and milk programs and therefore the boards are concluding that's interfering.

There is a case to be made here and it's ironic that one of those presenting the school boards' argument against the union will be the human resources administrator of the Trillium Lakelands board, none other than Earl Manners, former president of the high school teachers union during the angry Mike Harris years. Manners has been on the other team for nearly 6 years.