As of December 4, 2019, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) began a series of one-day walkouts protesting the Government not fulfilling the requests of the Union. The ETFO is asking for a 2% increase in wages while the Government is only offering 1%. The other demands the ETFO has is increasing the support with regards to students with special needs, addressing violence within schools, and preserving full-day kindergarten. The Government is not accepting the offer causing the ETFO to strike for over a month now. With negotiations being held weekly, most of Ontario is waiting patiently for a deal to be met.
The Government should compromise increasing the wages of elementary school teachers by 1.5% while investing the other 0.5% requested, and the money that was saved from the strikes into the other issues presented by the ETFO. This will allow for a compromise to be met between both parties.
The article discussed the topic of the “Government bribing parents”(1) by giving money to families who have children in elementary school, and students 21 and under with special needs who are in a publicly funded program. On average, this funding costs around 48 million dollars daily, which is 12 million dollars cheaper when comparing the money, the Government spends on teachers and support staff wages. The Government is funding this money to the parents of young students to “provide some relief to families.” The Union interpreted this action as a bribe, creating more conflict between the parties.
I believe that instead of paying out families for childcare during the strike, the money should be put towards funding for these programs the ETFO is requesting. The Government has saved millions of dollars due to the strikes which can be invested into the system, rather than used to spark interests of parents.
I personally believe that the Government should accept the requests of the ETFO because Ontario’s education is a necessary and globally prestigious industry Canada has been recognized for (2). With this being said, I do not think it is realistic to fund all of these requests to the ability the ETFO wants since citizens voted in a Conservative Government that promised to cut public funding on industries such as education.
If we look at Ford’s fourth quarter-hourly wage growth by occupation, it is identified that the Government has increased wages in all other occupational groups by an average of 3% but education, which has been cut by 0.9% (Refer to Image 1) (3). By the Government agreeing to
increase wages for education workers by 1.5%, I believe this is a reasonable compromise between what each group is asking for. The Government needs to realize the difference between all other occupations compared to education is unreasonable and needs to be fixed. Image 1
Thank you for reading my opinion on the topic. I am excited to hear your stance on the subject and answer any questions if you have any!
Claire Grant
(1) CBC News. (January 15, 2020). Ontario public elementary school teachers set to begin rotating strikes on Monday. CBC News Toronto. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/etfo-public-teachers-strike-1.5427368
(2) U.S. News. (n.d.). Best Countries for Education. U.S. News and World Reports. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-education?slide=4
(3) Government of Ontario. (n.d.). Ontario Employment Reports. Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-employment-reports/april-june-2019?share=a52caeb0-ae26-11e9-b1d7-536843a29b1d
Claire Grant 
Hello Claire,
I enjoyed reading your post about your thoughts on this topic. Great work! I very much agree with you that a 1.5 percent increase in wages is a great compromise. Right in between the one percent offering by the Ford government and the two percent wanted by the ETFO. Although I do agree the half percent being spent on increases for special needs education would be a good use of money, I don’t know if the Ford government would agree to this. I think the Ford government is looking to cut costs in any way and are not willing to spend that two percent increase even if only 1.5 percent of it is going directly to the teachers. Let me know your thoughts on whether you think the Ford government would be willing to make this agreement. Overall great post!
Thanks,
Pearson
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Hi Claire,
I just wanted to begin by thanking you for writing about such a pressing topic in Canada today. As someone who has lived in Ontario my entire life this issue definitely resonates with me. I fully agree with you that the government should accept the ETFO’s request, but as you said that would be very unlikely for the ETFO to get full funding for both wage increases and their other programs. You bring up an excellent point of a compromise of a 1.5% wage increase for teachers. I believe that this compromise will provide teachers with a partial win and will allow for the extra .5% to be allocated to vital programs at schools such as increasing support for special needs students, as well as preserving full day kindergarten. Programs like full day kindergarten are so important for both parents and their children because most parents do not have the job flexibility to look after their kids during the day. With full day kindergarten, however, parents will not have to compromise their job and their children will receive the attention and support that they need to be mentally and physically healthy.Overall, I believe that Ford’s cuts to education are very short-sighted and you fully encapsulated the importance of this issue in your summary.
Thank you so much for the great read!
Have a safe and fun trip in Guatemala,
Seth
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