Opening Statement



Tuesday 19 August 2014

Teacher Free Speech Contract Guide!

My Teacher + Union Acronym Guide is Here! 



Read all about it ...

Theses certainly are interesting times! This fall our Ontario teacher unions are negotiating your next contract. The current ones expire August 31. They will be negotiating with a  Liberal majority government, according to the new terms of Bill 122: The School Board Collective Bargaining Act 2014 !

As you trickle back from summer holidays you can find the contract news items from my Teacher Summer News and Views updates now relocated here for your convenience . Other teacher news is still on that blog Here . My blogsite archive is located below this column. It contains abundant teacher news links from 2011-2014, with a pretty heavy blow by blow account of the 2012-13 MOU negotiations, job actions, and strikes. It can be a good research tool to see what happened. My Twitter account is @ #davidchiarelli. You can subscribe to receive blogsite news updates, and links to other related stories of teacher interest. 

This is a teacher free speech blogsite. See my banner at the top of the page. It is not an official union newsite. Rather it's a grassroots one. You can comment below the blog to share news info, express your views and engage in a respectful debate. You can also submit guest blogs. Details are @ Submissions


Premier Kathleen Wynne: Will Bill 122 overcome the confusion + teacher union unrest caused by Bill 115 + the 2012-13 OLP MOU's?

General

[For latest news updates visit my Teacher News + Views blog @ Here! ]

Here's the final version of Bill 122 as passed into law on April 9th 2014 @ Download

Better brush up on Bill 122: our new Collective Bargaining Act 2014 to see how the negotiations are being set up and run @ Bill 122 Study Guide

Links for the Ontario Ministry of Education Education's Labour documents from 2012-2013 are located @ Here

Here's the Ontario Education Ministry's "Education Fact Sheet" for your perusal @ MOE

Here is Premier Wynnes Open Letter to the Provinces Teachers from March 2013, after she had won the OLP's leadership race and inherited a labour mess @ Her Letter

There is of course a political angle to the negotiations. Here is a resource guide to h
ow much each teacher union contribute to the OLP, NDP, + PC's in the 2014 Ontario spring election @ Elections Ontario


Which way will it go?!?

Our provincial teacher union presidents respond to the provincial election results. Of course we all felt great relief that Tim Hudak's neo cons crashed + burned. However the Liberal majority creates some intrepidation. One need only recall the last round of contract negotiations in 2012-13 when we saw our collective agreements stripped. Check out the president's reactions HERE!

TYLC [Toronto York Labour Councils] statement on union labour contract considerations after the spring 2014 spring election are @ TYLC

Upon taking office, new OLP Treasury Minister Deb Matthews wasted no time in stating that the government has no new money budgeted for a public service wage increase. Not even to match the inflation rate. In her words there are no "lollipops + rainbows" @ Minister Says No!

More specifically Deb Matthews has said that teachers can expect "net zeros" in compensation increases @ Zilch!

However, Education Minister Liz Sandals has claimed teachers could get a pay increase if we can find savings elsewhere within the allocated budget. She suggest pooling benefit plans.

Premier Wynne refuses to make any promise she'll restore lost teacher benefits from the last round of negotiations @ MOU's Revisited!


Ontario teachers still remember the 2012-13 winter of our discontent!

Premier Wynne has warned of some "difficult choices ahead" after the 2013 "Austerity Budget" was passed this July @ 2013 Ontario Budget

Your contract expires August 31. More @ MOE

Are there dark clouds of cuts and strikes on the horizon for this fall? More @ What next?

Shape of things to come? Declining enrolment is resulting in lay offs at this Ontario school @ Lakefield

US teachers are spending lots of money themselves for school supplies as they prepare for fall classes to resume. In Ontario too? My guess would be yes. Read @ $chool $upplie$

Many of us on my site were critical of how the last round of provincial bargaining negotiations were carried out. But that doesn't mean we should be "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak! A Broadbent Institute book review of why "Unions Matter" is @ Broadbent

ETFO



ETFO President Sam Hammond

ETFO has provided an excellent summary of why contract and collective bargaining are essential for you as a teacher professional @ ETFO

ETFO President Sam Hammond says he wants to avoid teacher labour turmoil in this year's contract talks @ Next Contract?

This summer, ETFO AGM [Annual general Meeting] delegates were told that their teacher union assisted the Liberals in defeating the Hudak PC's in many ridings across Ontario during the spring election. Many teachers are concerned about how much our teacher unions [OSSTF, OECTS, AEFO, CUPE etc] contributed to the OLP, and in which ridings. However, everybody seems pretty tight lipped at the executive level. The OLP? Remember Bill 115? Article @ CPCML


Premier Wynne was on the hot seat at this years ETFO AGM!

ETFO York's David Clegg puts the screws to Premier Wynne over Bill 122 @ David Clegg

ETFO AGM delegates turned up the heat on Premier Wynne as she told them that no new money is available for the next contracts.  She also said that she has no intention of bargaining in the media. Is that why she was so oblique during the Q+A??? More @ Globe + Mail

More on the Premier's rough ride over her party track record during the 2012-13 OLP MOU Bill 115 debacle is @ Toronto Star and CNews

The Premier also refused to make any promises about restoring lost teacher benefits @ MOU's Revisited!

ETFO President Sam Hammond claims he wants to "keep moving forward". He says,"Rebuilding trust takes a long time". More @ Toronto Sun

This ETFO communique provides the fall CB meeting dates for local Presidents, Chief Negotiators and the Communications campaign @ Sam Hammond



ETFO AGM delegates are still not happy campers over Bill 115 + the MOU!

ETFO President Hammond's closing AGM remarks are summarized here. Job actions won't be ruled out. The news story + a video link is @ Hammond

More news coverage of ETFO's upcoming contract talks is Toronto Star

ETFO filed it's Notice to Bargain on June 30th @ ETFO

Information on the June 2013 ETFO MOU can be foundHere

OECTA



OECTA President James Ryan

Toronto Sun interviews OECTA President James Ryan on the affiliate's expectations in the upcoming contract talks. Ignore the writer's rant against the concerns expressed by ETFO members to Premier Wynne at their Summer AGM. Strikes me as one of the Sun's typical neo con attempts at a con divide + conquer strategy. Don't put it past them. Read @ Sun

OECTA President James Ryan has announced that the province + the Catholic school board trustees have been provided with the unions notice to bargain. However negotiations aren't expected until after the summer holidays @ Presidents Blog!

OECTA Sudbury Elementary President Kent MacNeill is firm that his unit won't engage in any concession bargaining. As a result of the 2012 OECTA MOU, his member's lost their retirement benefits without being allowed a ratification vote. Kent participated in the principled MOU OLRB challenge with other OECTA dissidents including the Metro 7 and Richard Brock's Halton Elementary unit. Unfortunately, in an unprecedented move the OECTA provincial office evoked Bill 122 to extinguish any opposition among its own members and got the case dismissed [ Read Here!]. We salute Kent for still hanging in there! There aren't many survivors left! Anyway, this story probably deserves a whole blog but you can read the latest news report @ OECTA MOU

My 2012 OECTA MOU Study Guide is @ Here! The new OECTA member ratification process is There!


OSSTF President Paul Elliot

OSSTF

OSSTF President Paul Elliot says he expects improvements in the new contracts. OSSTF will meet with the Moe through September with strike votes to be completed by Thanksgiving @ Globe + Mail

OSSTF announces it's first contract talks began this summer! Will there be labour peace or are we headed for a repeat of 2012-13? More @ Here we go!

OSSTF Collective Bargaining info is mostly only available to members @ OSSTF

More OSSTF statements are available @ Toronto Star

Remember Bill 115?! OSSTF info on the state of the Bill 115 Constitutional Challenge is @ OSSTF

Compare the OSSTF + OECTA MOU's @ MOU's

Guest blogger Tim Heffernan considers whether OSSTF was betrayed for political reasons in the 2012-13 negotiations @ Tim

Guest blogger Rob Scott critiques OSSTF's strategy before + after the spring election @ Rob



Contracts: Another long hard winter ahead?

COMMENTS?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, David. Do you have an understanding of the main causes/issues surrounding the current B.C. teacher's strike? Are any of the issues there something that could potentially be facing Ontario teachers?

Kulture Kult Ink said...

I have posted background links on the BC teacher strike in my Teacher Summer News + Views Link guide in June. Also see the news links for May and early this spring. You will find these blog in my archive below this column.

While the strike doesn't directly affect us in Ontario, we are of course in solidarity. An attack on one teacher union is an attack on us all. The Ontario teacher unions have also, in the past, monitored court rulings on different aspects of the neo con attack on teachers in BC to better understand the implications under Canadian law, when a government tries to run roughshod over our constitutional and labour rights. I cannot recall an instance right now, but perhaps another of our readers can? There was at least one landmark one.

Hope this helps!

Solidarity!

David C

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