AMDSB Reached Tentative Employment Agreement With ETFO Teachers
by Bob Montgomery
The Avon Maitland District School Board and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Avon Maitland Teachers’ Local are pleased to announce that they have successfully reached a tentative agreement.
Superintendent of Human Resource Services Laura Marotta says the 700 teachers from thirty elementary schools in the Avon Maitland Board will vote on the tentative agreement on April 15. “The Board's bargaining unit and the Elementary Teacher's bargaining unit have been getting together over the last three or four months and each of them brought their ideas for improved working conditions, staffing conditions and basically, the way we function with our teachers in our classrooms in order to improve outcomes for students.”
Marotta says something that's very significant is they tried a different approach this year. She explains in the past the bargaining process involved one side working against the other side and it wasn't a very collaborative process. This time, both bargaining units came to the table focused on improved student outcomes, making sure that they created flexible agreements that are forward-looking.T he labour markets don't look the same as they once did, and they believe they positioned themselves very well, looking into the future. And she's confident the tentative agreement will be ratified and that contract will take them to August of 2026.
The President of the Avon Maitland Teachers’ Local, Laura Inglis-Eickmeier says “Students and Teachers in Avon Maitland continue to feel the impact of our provincial government’s lack of support for education funding and lack of engagement on the issue of teacher shortages. This impact was felt throughout negotiations. Despite this, the board’s team demonstrated their respect for our members and the important work they do. I wish to thank our collective bargaining committee for their extensive work on behalf of their colleagues across the district, and look forward to bringing this tentative agreement to our membership on April 15.”
Marotta also points out anything like salaries and benefits does not get negotiated locally. That gets negotiated centrally by the Provincial Elementary Teacher's Federation and the Ontario Public School Board's Association. Under the School Board Collective Bargaining Act, both the central agreement and the local agreement must be ratified before a collective agreement is in place. Provincially, ETFO ratified the central agreement on December 15 of 2023.
