Through an examination of recent trends in collective agreement provisions and a discussion of negotiation strategy, this paper attempts to forecast what the conditions of employment might contribute to education costs in Ontario in the immediate future. Conditions-of-employment clauses are analyzed according to their effect upon staffing needs and staffing flexibility. Such conditions include stipulation of pupil teacher ratio, class size, instructional load, leave provisions, and the flexibility with which school boards can respond to declining staff needs. Considering the declining enrollment, the author discusses the various options open to school boards in reducing the number of teachers and describes the policies most frequently followed. He perceives future bargaining as being influenced by such factors as the lifting of wage and price controls, teachers' efforts to regain public support, the economic situation in Canada, and the activities of the Education Relations Commission. He expects teacher gains to be modest and increases in per-pupil education costs to be small. (Author/WD)