A new agreement is place between the Greater Essex County District School Board and its elementary teachers after members of the local Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario union voted 97% in favour of the new deal.
President of Greater Essex ETFO, Adelina Cecchin, is happy to see the new deal strongly supported.
"Feeling good. We're pleased with the result," Cecchin tells BlackburnNews.com. "There was a lot of work and a lot of discussion, but a good result."
Cecchin says the new deal brings in greater protections for teachers affected by school closures.
"We were in a situation in the last couple of years where we had to declare teachers redundant and we just wanted to make sure the language that we had [in a new deal] was going to be good language that protected our teachers and that's what we were able to achieve," says Cecchin.
Public school board trustees voted in favour of the local deal a week ago, after the tentative agreement was reached earlier in the year.
The local ETFO chapter represents 1,400 members.