Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is critical of the teachers’ union for social media posts claiming half the high school teachers under the Near North school board will lose their jobs.
In a meeting with members of the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce, Fedeli said the posts are a lie and furthermore the union was “poisoning students” with this type of claim.
At issue is the 121 redundancy notices the Near North board issued to the teachers’ federation under terms of the collective agreement.
After getting the notices the union held a meeting outside Fedeli’s office to talk about what the surplus notices meant and the number of teachers they would affect.
“They’ve taken this to a whole new level,” he said.
“(They say) we’re cutting 50 percent of the teachers. That’s preposterous! No one should believe a word the teachers’ union ever tells them again. No teacher will lose their job because of increased class sizes or e-learning. We’ve told them that for months.”
Fedeli speculated that the union is talking about massive job cuts because collective bargaining talks are at hand but couldn’t say more.
The Nipissing MPP says there is money in the budget to prevent teacher job losses.
Asked why the Near North board would issue so many redundancy notices this year compared to previous years, Fedeli said that’s a local school board decision that had nothing to do with the government.
However, he speculated again that perhaps it had something to do with student enrolment.
Fedeli said instead of working with the government to put student achievement first, the teachers’ union is putting itself first and putting “fear in students and parents.”
Fedeli said the union should apologize for its statements.
