The union representing Ontario's public high school teachers has announced another one-day strike in its ongoing contract dispute with the provincial government, but says it's willing to pause it.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce got ahead of the announcement by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation that came out around 1 p.m. Friday, holding his own news conference at 12:30.
"OSSTF has not put forward any changes of their proposal," he said. "If we do not accept their $1.5 billion increase, there will be more strike action, this is irresponsible and this is unacceptable."
The next one-day strike action will take place next Wednesday, December 11 for select school boards, following one this past Wednesday.
Lecce's main sticking point has been the compensation, saying a one-per cent increase is as much as they're willing to offer and that the $750 million that would be spent on two per cent could be used for other education projects.
"We stand with parents against escalation and I seriously hope that the unions will consider private mediation to avoid this needless escalation," he said.
But Union President Harvey Bischof argues it's not an offer at all, saying it's simply the legislative cap of Bill 124, which limits public sector wage increases to one per cent.
"There's a clause in that legislation that says the President of the Treasury Board can exclude any collective agreement," he said. "Either the clause is there for a purpose or it's not."
On top of compensation, Bischof says even though the government has eased back on how much it wants to increase class sizes over four years, they want to increase nonetheless.
"They haven't begun bargaining in good faith," Bischof said. "I'm willing to negotiate (compensation) if they come to the table without having unilaterially imposed strips on the system."
Bischof said the same goes for holding back on the strike.
There have been no negotiations since talks broke off late Tuesday night, leading to the one-day strike on Wednesday.
The union says between Saturday and Tuesday night, actual face-to-face talks only lasted a total of 40 minutes.
The impacted boards for the upcoming strike are:
Toronto District School Board
Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board
Grand Erie District School Board
Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board
Near North District School Board
Rainy River District School Board
Simcoe County District School Board
Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board
Trillium Lakelands District School Board