Superior-Greenstone DSB Elementary Teachers Participate in Rolling Strike (incl.Interviews)

Written by admin on 21 December 2012

Manitouwadge Public School teachers were among those from Superior-Greenstone DSB who partticipated in yesterday's strike in Northwestern Ontario. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

Occasional and Secondary School Teachers Join their Elementary School Colleagues On The Picket Line In Manitouwadge

Occasional teacher Dave Passi and OSST Wayne Pitman were among those who joined the elementary teachers from Manitouwadge Public School at lunch in a show of solidarity. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

MANITOUWADGE, ON – Elementary school teachers in Northwestern Ontario’s Superior-Greenstone District School Board walked off the job yesterday as part of one-day, rotating strikes across the province.

Picket lines were staged at English elementary schools across the Northshore & Greenstone as teachers put up with typical winter temperatures, picketing on slushie sidewalks and snowbanks, to get their message out.

Outside Manitouwadge Public School during the lunch hour, Occasional Teachers as well as the Ontario Secondary School Teachers from neighbouring Manitouwadge High School (also part of SGDSB) joined the elementary teachers who paced the sidewalk carrying handmade signs decrying the provincial government.

In September, Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government passed Bill 115, which would force a contract on teachers if an agreement cannot be reached between the province and the union before Dec. 31. The legislation also gives the government power to end a strike.

Though, Education Minister Laurel Broten said the government would not impose back-to-work edicts with respect to the one-day rolling strikes Occasional Teacher Dave Passi pointed out the Premier’s deadline as a reminder that the government did intend to force teachers back to work regardless of whether an agreement was reached.