Liberal education minister Laurel Broten has used Bill 115 to impose contracts on elementary and secondary school teachers in Ontario. Where do we go from here?
I can't say I'm really sure. Obviously the teachers unions are not happy. I would suspect at the least that they will instruct members to avoid supervising extra-curricular activities as they aren't required anyways. Probably more one day job actions as well, as their isn't a lot the minister can do about them (that I'm aware of). The teachers unions I also assume will continue to challenge Bill 115 in court, but that could take considerable time, probably more than the two years Bill 115 covers. There's no guarantee the teachers will win and I would guess that any judge would be reluctant to order the province to pay considerable sums of back pay in a decision.
One thing to note is that Bill 115 covers only two years and we will be right back to negotiating new contracts for the school year starting in September 2014. I'm assuming the province's finances won't be in much better shape by then so there will be more clashes with teachers unions. So likely less than two years of continuing job action, followed by more labour problems. Should be interesting.
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