While bargaining between Ontario's elementary teachers and their employers hasn't even begun, when it does it will be done at the school board level and not provincially, says the body representing the educators.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) recently announced that it has moved to assume control of local negotiations, following the breakdown of talks with the Ontario Public School Boards' Association (OPSBA) and the Ministry of Education to set a framework for local bargaining.

Local ETFO presidents from across Ontario assembled at the federation's provincial headquarters on June 6 to sign takeover documents to enable ETFO provincial staff to begin negotiations with their local school boards.

The existing four-year local collective agreements for all elementary public school teachers and occasional teachers in Ontario will expire August 31, 2008. Virtually all contracts for all teachers and various other support staff unions at school boards across Ontario run out August 31.

The ETFO represents 73,000 public elementary school teachers and education workers (support staff) across Ontario and is the largest teacher federation in Canada. The Halton chapter of ETFO has about 1,700 full-time equivalent workers, which represents about 1,900 teachers.

"Framework talks failed because the ministry's bargaining team clearly demonstrated that they do not share our commitment to elementary education," ETFO President David Clegg said in a press release.

"They said there were no resources available for further negotiation," added Clegg.

"They (ministry) said 'No' to more resources for elementary schools, they said 'No' to additional elementary teachers to provide more in-depth learning for students and to make schools safer, and they said 'Yes' to capping class sizes in Grades 4-8, which are much larger than those in secondary schools. Clearly, there was no benefit to continue with the meetings."

Clegg said that the ministry told him it is willing to somewhat reduce the maximum number of students in some Grades 4 to 8 classes from the current average of 25 students per class, but he did not offer specifics. The current high school student-teacher class ratio is 22:1, he said.

Last year the ministry mandated that primary class sizes, for junior kindergarten to Grade 3, be no larger than an average of 20 students for every teacher.

Clegg said the next move is for the ETFO to set up meetings with boards of education across the province to negotiate local issues.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne told the Champion's sister paper, the Burlington Post, she is disappointed in the ETFO's decision to abandon the provincial contract framework bargaining. Wynne said the province is looking for four-year contract terms. She noted they have tentative agreements on some terms, like wages, with Ontario's Catholic elementary and secondary school teacher unions and French-language teachers.

"It's working conditions, it's monetary, it's commitment to improving the system. I'm very pleased with the tone of (those) discussions. That's why I was hoping ETFO would be part of that."

Wynne said the framework agreements with the Catholic and French-language teachers includes three per cent wage increases each year for four years.

Clegg said the ETFO was part of the discussions provincially about monetary matters, like wages and benefits, but that now the decision has been made to allow local union chapters to bargain their contract details. However, the provincial body of ETFO will have to sign off on any deals, he said. Each local bargaining team will include a provincial ETFO member.

ETFO Halton president Maureen Weinberger, a member of the local bargaining team, said the issue of the student-teacher classroom ratio is a matter of fairness and quality. She said that provincially high schools are funded $700 more for each secondary student compared to elementary pupils.

"That inequity is something we have been talking about for the six years I've been here (as president)....We believe progress should be about getting rid of that gap. It appears, at worst, to be about valuing students in secondary more than those in elementary."

Wynne said it's not a straight comparison.

"The way we fund the system is different from the way they're (ETFO) calculating that gap. We don't fund students as to whether they are elementary or secondary. There are a whole lot of factors that go into that per-pupil-funding -- rural (areas), urban (areas), declining enrolment, remote schools, all sorts of things that go into determining how much money goes into the system," she told the Post.

"The other reality is that about a third of that $711 gap, as they call it, relates to the fact that on average secondary teachers have more experience and qualifications than elementary teachers" and therefore are paid more, she said.

Since collective bargaining discussions haven't started at the public school board level, Weinberger believes they may not begin here or elsewhere in the province until late summer.