The union representing elementary teachers in Ontario will continue with rotating strikes if a deal is not reached by March 23, 2020.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario will meet with the mediator on Wednesday to resume central negotiations with the province.
"The minister now has an opportunity to avoid further disruption by reaching a fair deal with ETFO before March 23. If these talks are unsuccessful, ETFO will resume rotating strike action on the Monday following March break," said ETFO First Vice-President Karen Campbell.
Members of ETFO have been in the classroom full time for the last two weeks.
"ETFO has not been engaged in the full withdrawal of services for the past two weeks. The Ford government missed a real opportunity to get back to the table at that time," said Campbell.
Sticking points at the bargaining table continue to be special education funds, class sizes, and hiring practices.
"Educators and parents want fair agreements that value each and every elementary student, respect educators and support our schools appropriately," added Campbell.
ETFO represents 83,000 elementary public school teachers, occasional teachers and education professionals across the province.
Meanwhile, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce sounded off on the latest ETFO development Monday evening.
"Now that the mediator has called us back to negotiate, the time is now for the union to cease escalation and focus on negotiating a deal that keeps students in class," said Lecce. "While ETFO has decided to escalate their withdrawal of service, our government is squarely focused on getting a deal, a positive deal that effectively freezes classroom size, provides full support for special education, maintains full-day kindergarten, and ensures merit-based hiring. Our focus is on negotiating so students can remain in class as opposed to being negatively impacted by continuing escalation by the teachers' unions. I remain fully committed to reaching a deal that keeps students in class, provides certainty to parents, and fairness to educators."
