Strike-day payments to parents cause public backlash against government

BY PAUL JUNOR

As the teachers’ union continue their strike actions against the provincial government, many people are wondering why the government is offering strike day payments.

Currently, all the public and catholic teachers’ unions are involved in strike actions. OSSTF, ETFO, OECTA and FETO are all involved. ETFO which represents approximately 83,000 teachers conducted their first province-wide walkout on Thursday, February 6^th.  It will be followed up with two strike days per week, which will impact all the public boards in Ontario. OECTA which represents approximately 45,000 members, conducted a daylong strike on Tuesday, February 4^th and intend to announce additional job actions. The government realized that many parents have been inconvenienced by these strikes and have offered strike-day payments to them.

According to the Thursday, February 6^th edition of the Toronto Star, the PC-led governments made an offer to parents. They will compensate parents between $25.00 and $60.00 per child based on their age, for each day that a school or a school-based children’s centre is shut due to the strike actions.

According to ETFO in a statement to the Star, “ETFO has called this money a transparent attempt to bribe the public to support the government and cover up the fact that it is making massive cuts to public education.”  The union is convinced that the government is trying to sway public opinion against it to detract from the massive cuts and reductions in the public education system.

According to the Toronto Star, as of Tuesday, February 5^th, the government has received applications for 342,856 children, which is about 25% of the 145 million who are eligible in Ontario. The Star quotes Jessica Lysons – who is part of the organization Ontario Parent Action Network – as stating, “A small, temporary help on child-care costs is not going to distract from the issue that is government is gutting public education.”

Many parents are not taking the bait from the government and they are aware of the underlying issues. The Ford government indicated that it was willing to set aside up to $48 million per day to help parents who are affected by the labour disruption, to defray child-care costs (January 16^th edition of the Toronto Star).

According to the Minister of Education, Stephen Leece, “We recognize the impact of union escalations on families is real, and unions expect hard-working families to bear the costs of their cyclical labour action.”  In order to receive the strike-day payments, no receipts are required from the parents. It is retroactive to any previous work stoppage day. The only thing that parents have to do is register online.

As of Wednesday, January 15^th, approximately 12,000 parents had done so.

According to the February 6^th edition of the Toronto Star, many parents who had applied for the strike-pay payments received far more than they imagined in an overpayment for school closures that had not even occurred as yet. The Ministry of Education blamed it on a glitch stating, “We will continue to review our systems to ensure all parents receive support during this period of disruption.”