Work-to-rule action Monday from Hamilton elementary school teachers

More than 30,000 Hamilton elementary students may be without report card comments this year as teachers begin work-to-rule action Monday with just six weeks remaining in the school year.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) announced the strike action in a press conference Friday, notifying the board and parents that the 76,000 teachers across the province will not administer, mark or distribute standardized testing, and forego any duties related to report cards except for the bare minimum of giving grades on subjects to school administrators.

EFTO president Sam Hammond said "phase one" of strike action will not impact field trips or extracurricular activities, but says the concessions asked for at the bargaining table would "unravel more than a decade of progress."

Parent-teacher meetings are still allowed under this set of work-to-rule action, and Hammond did not give a timeline for "phase one," but added the union is in "no hurry."

Hamilton-Wentworth Elementary Teachers' Local president Jeff Sorensen said this action is intended to only impact the ministry, and not affect students.

"It's an incremental work-to-rule," Sorensen said. "It's the ministry we want to get back to the table…The ideas were centred around showing the ministry without affecting parents and children if at all possible."

"Hopefully it will have as minimal effect on student learning," Sorensen said. "Iif anything we think it will result in teachers being able to spend more time on student learning."

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) chair Todd White said they are working with a "contigency team," to assess the strike action.

"There should be no impact on students or families as far as we can see," White said. "Some of the restraints are mainly administrative on the school board side. We're going to try to keep it just that, which is administrative. At this point, there shouldn't be any effect."

"We're going to have to find ways around report cards and principal coverage," White said. Teachers will not cover for principals when they leave, as part of not supporting any ministry staff. "Those are the two bigger pieces. When a principal is out of school, there's another staff member that covers it."

Jason Nason, a parent of two kids in the elementary system, said he "appreciates" the incremental nature of the strike action, but said the comments he gets about his son in senior kindergarten and daughter in Grade 2 are still important.

"We're not there for that six hours a day," Nason said, noting his children are excited to talk about some parts of school, but not necessarily what they're struggling in.

"Comments are important," Nason said. "It's not end of the world but definitely appreciated. It helps you know where your kids stand."

As for what would really impact him as a parent, with both he and his wife working full time, and their after-school babysitter in high school, any strike would have a huge impact.

"It would make people angry a lot faster," Nason said.

On Tuesday, the ETFO issued a press release notifying parents that they would take province-wide strike action beginning Monday, May 11.

The union represents 76,000 teachers across the province. At the time, the union said they would release the details of that strike action on Thursday or Friday.

White said local bargaining has begun.

"Our first meeting was last week," said White. "We're in the early stages but it's going well and we have a positive relationship with our local president and bargaining unit."

There are 31,000 students in the HWDSB elementary system.

The strike comes after eight months of negotiation after the EFTO's contract expired in August. The government is asking for the union to give concessions, including control over how teachers use their preparation time.

The bargaining is a two-tier process, in which teachers' unions negotiate with both local boards and the province in parallel talks.