By Stew Kernan

The Rainbow District School Board along with two other board’s hit by high school teachers’ strikes want the job actions declared unlawful.

The local board as well as boards in the Durham and Peel Regions are making the request in a joint application to the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

5,000 students in Sudbury and Manitoulin and 70,000 students in total are out of the classroom — but the boards say central bargaining issues are involved, not local ones.

Chair of the Rainbow Board, Doreen Dewar says there are misconceptions that the board is trying to increase class sizes, limit prep time and freeze salaries and benefits at the local table, but those are central issues.

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Meantime…local striking high school teachers got some support on the picket lines today.

The President of the Ontario Federation of Labour Sid Ryan visited strikers at Lasalle as well at Confederation Secondary.

Ryan demanded that the government increase the corporate tax rate instead of picking on teachers.

Ryan says it’s teachers who know best what works in the classroom, not someone sitting in a board room.