Photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / monkeybusinessPhoto courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / monkeybusiness
Windsor

World Teacher Day amid labour strike at schools

Teachers across the region will be at a rally Thursday to celebrate World Teacher Day and put pressure on the Ontario government in collective bargaining.

They will protest funding to cuts to education too.

Members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, along with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and the union that represents French language teachers will demonstrate outside Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls office in Leamington.

"There will be a rally from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to send a message to Mr. Nicholls and his government that cuts to education are not acceptable," read a release from OSSTF. "Funding shortfalls will be borne most heavily on the shoulders of our most vulnerable students."

The teachers will also donate to a local migrant worker charity group to help vulnerable workers and their families.

"Supporting local groups that include students who we see in our schools every day is exactly the altruism that makes me so proud to be a teacher," said OSSTF District 9 President Erin Roy. "Parents send us their very best, and it is our role as community members and public servants to serve them."

Public elementary school teachers have a strike vote coming up later this month on issues being bargained at the provincial level. That is October 17 at Caesars Windsor in the Augustus Ballroom starting at 5:45 p.m.

On Wednesday, the union that represents support staff in publicly-funded schools also announced its members, who have been carrying out a work-to-rule campaign this week, will go on full-strike Monday.

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