Teachers set next strike date

Staff

Local high school teachers have set this Thursday (May 19) as the date for their next one-day strike.
It will be the fourth in as many weeks since teachers escalated strike action in their contract dispute with the Rainy River District School Board.
As such, the board has cancelled all instructional programs for Grades 9-12 this Thursday.
All board high schools will be closed to students, with the exception of programming for Grades 7 and 8 students at Atikokan High School.
Elementary school classes and programming will continue as normal.
Additional impacts of the one-day strikes include:
•high school extra-curricular activities, field trips, and school events either are being rescheduled, postponed, or cancelled during the one-day walkouts while many extended field trips are continuing; and
•buses for high school students will not be operating.
Buses will continue for elementary students only.
Community use of schools, in the evenings and on weekends, will continue as scheduled.
In related news, the Ministry of Labour and the Assistant Deputy Minister’s Office reached out to the OSSTF to ascertain the possibility of returning to the bargaining table with the ADM’s assistance.
The OSSTF indicated it is open to the concept and has scheduled May 31 for negotiations.
ADM Peter Simpson will be joining OSSTF at the bargaining table to assist both parties in finding a negotiated settlement.