They demanded the government ask for receipts from the unions to justify the payments for their negotiating costs.
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ETFO President Sam Hammond said the union won’t respond to threats.
“This money has not flowed”, Wynne said.
The funds, which are part of the government’s new centralized bargaining system, “didn’t come from the classroom …”
Hamilton’s Public School Board is telling parents of elementary school students there will be no fall progress reports as the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario is escalating its job action today.
And the ministry has said that it was appropriate to make similar payments in 2008 and 2012 to three education unions because it involved voluntary discussions that were a precursor to the new system. She surprised everyone when she said they will now require receipts to show how the money is spent, even though Education Minister Liz Sandals had insisted receipts were not necessary.
“The announcement of our escalation this week was meant to compel (the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association) and the government to return to the table to bargain in good faith”.
“When you are going through a transformational process, if you want the transformation to work, the first thing to do is to get the people into the building and committed to making the process work by being there, and in this case that’s been a rather large investment”, she said after question period.
“We honestly believe that they’re close enough, that given eight days, each one of them should be able to reach an agreement and resolve the issues”. OECTA spent a further $2.2 million and OSSTF spent $386,000.
“We know a few unions have indicated it hasn’t, but we have over 4,000 collective agreements” in the broader public sector, she said.
The Progressive Conservatives continued to press for an auditor general investigation into the payments.
Ann Hawkins, who heads the 50,000-member Catholic teachers’ union, said suggestions OECTA is “a partisan contributor to the Liberal party” and that its 2014 advertising campaign were “attack ads are wrong”.
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The union has donated to the Liberals, NDP and Conservatives, she said in a written statement issued Wednesday morning.
