Teachers and support staff standing together at one-day picket

Teachers and support staff both stood together on the picket lines this morning at Chippewa Secondary School. 

The event is part of a one-day strike after both sides could not reach a contract agreement with the province. 

"It is mixed emotions for sure, we do not want to be here and we did not want to get to this stage and we understand this is hard on parents and an inconvenience with all this, we get all that, we are sympathetic to that," admitted OSSTF District 4 FEESO president Glen Hodgson. 

"There is that part of it but on the other hand, we are pretty firm in our resolve. We are out here to show that we are not going to give in, we are going to stand firm because we believe in public education and we see the government is intent on destroying public education."

Hodgson believes the government is all about cuts and that will continue to erode the education system in the province.

"We believe in our system it is world-class and what we are feeling today is and you see the solidarity today of not just our members but the people from the public who have come to join us and stand in solidarity with us and we are not going to let the government attack our public education system," he said.  

"We believe in it so we are going to stand up for it and we believe that is what the parents and the children of our community deserve."  

Hodgson believes having the support staff - who are having their own issues with contract negotiations with the province - by their side today is important. 

"What I am seeing is people are understanding and appreciating the role of the support staff and that has been great because a lot of times those issues are not coming to a head and we very much value our support staff and we know they play a vital role in public education," he said. 

Troy Simkins, OSSTF District 4 ESSP president, says they are not just out because the teachers are out. 

"It just happens that the government is not budging on anything or proposing deals that are good for any of our members," he said. 

"The violence in the schools, the students that have special needs are on the increase every year. We need more supports in our schools right now, not less and these government cuts have put members health and safety at risk because we don't have the numbers that we need to support these kids."  

Hodgson says Ontario's public high school teachers have been without a contract since August.

"We honestly believe that the public will see that we are standing up for what they believe in," he said.

"And we have seen those results from the public consultations that the government did with parents and they fully support the positions that we have in terms of no increases to class sizes, no mandatory E-Learning and investing in public education." 

Last night, Education Minister Stephen Lecce asked the union to remain at the bargaining table, saying his bargaining team had presented a new "framework" to the union in a bid to keep all parties at the table.