Citing “stability for staff, students, parents and guardians,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce is “contemplating” a four-year term on education collective agreements set to be negotiated throughout the summer, according to a memo sent out to unions.

The memo, penned by Andrew Davis, the assistant deputy education minister, sent out to unions and school board bargaining agencies lays out the provisions within the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014 that allow the government to change regulations around the length of collective bargaining agreement. After consultation with the unions and school boards, the government can vary the length of agreements to two, four or five years rather than the established three years.

In a statement to QP Briefing, Lecce said his priority is “to make sure students are back in class, on time, with the full school experience, which is critical to their mental and physical health,” and emphasized “stability” as “critical to Ontario students.”

The memo was sent to school board associations and unions, including CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU), which represents over 55,000 education workers and is set to begin negotiating on July 18.

Laura Walton, president of the OSBCU, said to QP Briefing in response to the memo, “it seems all very bizarre, right?”

“Typically, when one party or another wants to change the terms of the collective agreement in regards to the length, it's done at a bargaining table … I understand they're saying, ‘hey, the reason that we're changing the terms is because we want stability,’ but it also makes sure that there's no interruption in the next election cycle,” Walton said.

A four-year agreement “absolutely” raises the stakes for the union in their negotiations, Walton added. “We’re now looking at a collective agreement that will be in place until 2026,” Walton said, “so even if you think, in the last two years, the changes that have happened … that’s double.”

It’s an “interesting tactic” that Walton doesn’t see as illegitimate, she acknowledges that it’s within Lecce’s legislated powers to regulate the length of the agreement, but for OBSCU, the three-year agreements “have been working under two different governments in a variety of ways. I mean, there’s nothing stopping a government from doing an extension to a collective agreement.”

The submission process that the government has chosen for its consultation process is “a fairly passive consultation process” for Walton. “It’s not a genuine consult.”

“Regardless of the length of this collective agreement, regardless of what the submissions say, our focus is: let's get to the bargaining table and talk,” Walton said. “And that's where these key decisions will be made.”

The imposition of a four-year agreement “probably constitutes an unnecessary interference in the collective bargaining process,” according to Larry Savage, a labour studies professor at Brock University. Savage also called the move “politically motivated,” as the Ford government sidestep the possibility of any hiccups in the negotiation process ahead of a 2026 provincial election.

According to Savage, within labour relations more broadly, employers tend to prefer longer agreements for the stability and unions lean toward shorter agreements for “more opportunities to push for changes.”

“I think the example of inflation is very instructive here, that if you lock yourself into a four-year collective agreement and months after you sign, inflation starts climbing, you are stuck with the wage increases that you bargain, even though that may mean you're falling behind,” Savage said.

Savage said the unions could constitutionally challenge the government if they do impose a four-year agreement length, but that could take years to resolve.

“That's the difference between private sector and public sector. Labour relations is when the employer is also the government, they can rewrite the rules in their own favour,” Savage said.

Especially for OBSCU workers, who had their wages frozen under former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Bill 115 and then capped to one per cent increases under Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 124, “these workers in particular have really fallen behind relative to their counterparts in the public sector and certainly their counterparts of the private sector.”

Savage said that “anger and resentment among this group of workers” has grown and “they’re ready to take on the provincial government.”

“All of this PC labour charm offensive that the media had talked about before and after the provincial election — this is a really good example of how that charm never extends to public sector unions. It's only private-sector unions and construction unions.”

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A source within the minister’s office confirmed the government has set dates to begin negotiations with multiple unions, including the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA), all within the week of July 18.

QP Briefing reached out to the OSSTF and OECTA for comment but did not get a response before publishing. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario declined to comment.

Lecce “contemplating” a four-year agreement with education unions

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