OTTAWA, Ont. – A local supply teacher is using an online petition to tell her union that her personal time is her own.

Caroline Orchard is a retired math teacher who still fills in as a supply teacher and volunteers as coach of the Sir Robert Borden High School Ski and Snowboard Team.

She has refused to withdraw her services as decreed by the union representing Ontario’s high school teachers, which threatens it’s members with sanctions if they don’t comply.  

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation instructed its members to pull out of extracurricular activities as of Monday, to protest a new bill that freezes their wages for two years and curbs their bargaining rights.

Among other actions, teachers are not to attend staff meetings, communicate with parents outside school hours or fill in for absent colleagues.

Orchard has refused to pull back from her duties and has now started an online petition to garner support.

“My time is my own and I’ll do what I want with it,” Orchard told 1310News.  “It’s your own voluntary time.  There’s even a memo that went out.”

Orchard feels the union should not be using volunteer work as a crutch when it comes to labour negotiations. “My aim is to make the use of extracurricular activities at tool for unions that is much harder to use,” she said.  

Orchard told 1310News that the union told her it could “name and shame” her if she continued her volunteer work.

Orchard adds, “If you look at the phrase “name and shame” in a pamphlet or website, to me that’s now called cyber bullying.”