Ford warns teachers´ unions not to dare protest class-size increases
(The Star Movies)

Premier Doug Ford is warning teachers’ unions against taking any action to protest his government’s move to increase class sizes to save money.“If the head of the unions want to hurt the children of this province by doing walkouts and everything else, I’d think twice if I were them,� Ford said Friday in Ottawa where he was touting the province’s $1.2 billion investment in a local light rail transit project.“You know I think the world of teachers but I might differentiate between labour and labour leadership, public and private sector unions,� the premier said.“I love the front-line teachers and we may not see eye to eye with the head of the unions because all they want to do is collect their union dues and start pocketing (them) into their pockets,� he said.Ford’s comments came after the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation said a high school with 800 students would lose 11 teachers — from 46 to 35 — due to changes introduced by his government.OSSTF president Harvey Bischof said that’s the toll from increasing the average secondary school class size from 22 student to 28 over the next four years and it could trigger “disruption� this fall with teacher contracts expiring at the end of August.Read more:High school teachers’ union warns of labour ‘disruption’ in fall over class-size changesOpinion | Emma Teitel: Bigger class sizes don’t promote ‘resiliency.’ They just make it easier to skip classLarger high school classes build teen ‘resiliency,’ Education Minister saysThat’s because OSSTF members “will not concede� to bigger classes in their local collective agreements.In total, the union expects to lose 5,700 teachers in English-language public high schools alone.Bischof said manufacturing a division between union leaders and members “is an old, tired tactic by right-wing premiers.&# ...