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By DENNIS SMITH Special ta The Champion Halton's public elementary teachers won't hold any walkouts at least until after negotiations slat- ed for October 8, says a union leader. Strike votes taken yesterday (Thursday) and Wednesday in Halton are being used to strengthen the position of teachers' negotia- tors, said the president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. Results of the votes aie expected to be made public today. "A strike vote doesn't mean the ncxt day teachers ait out of class- roms," Phyflis Benedict said ycs- terday. 'The taks would have to be at an absolute total impasse before we turn any type of sanction into action." There would probably be no strikes until well after thse October 8 date and then, only as a last resort, said Ms Bencdict. "No teachers want to trade their lesson plans for pickct lines," she said. "But we necd security in working conditions. And teachers and parents want to know how many kids will be in a class and how much preparation time tcach- ers have." Ms Benedict added the lemen- tary teachers don't want to sec their AI Tanner previous collective agreement stripped. The union leader said carlier there has been agreement on moat non-monetary items, but no deal was reached in areas of staffing, preparation time, benefits and salary. TIse board is also trYing to reduce teachers' preparation time by 40 minutes per weck. She said Wednesday's informa- tion/strike vote meeting in Milton for north Halton teachers was Wcil attended. Teachers' commenta strongly endorscd their ncgotiating tcam' s approach. said Ms Bcnedict, but she would not speculate on strikc vote ttals. Thse ncxt negotiation date is a fcw wccks away because the I laiLoiiL)istr ut SdoollBoar d1, awaiting finaI numbers for its 1998 short-year budget. "We' re going to wait until they have a stronger financial picture," said Ms Benedict, who agites with the delay. Meanwhile, Halton's secondary teachers, who have threatened to participate in rotating strikes, aren't taking job action this week. Local union representative AI Tanner said no strikes have been calied and he's hopeful there won't be one befoit Tuesday's mediation talks. Secondary teachers, in about 20 of 31 public school boards, are holding rotating one-day walkouts. Thse strikes are being held on a board-wide basis, but are sched- uled by thse provincial union lead- ers. Halton's public secondary teachers have promised 24-hours' notice of any walkout. 'II would hope therc's no strike before Tuesday, but personally, it's out of my control," said Mr. Tanner, president of the Halton dis- trict of thse Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers' Federation. 'II like to think we can go in and haro- mer out an agreement that day." The public secondary teachers threatening job action work ai boards where their workloads have been incrcased to seven classes from six over the course of a year. No primary school strike at least until early October