Opening Statement



Saturday 14 July 2012

OECTA PDT: A Study Guide!

I originally was going to provide an overview of our new OECTA PDT terms, and try to explain what they will mean for us as classroom teachers. I'm concerned that could be presumptuous. Also, I might inadvertently mislead you or misrepresent the details. Remember, these informal blogs only represent my own views and insights, and not necessarily those of my affiliation. When they do, I usually identify them accordingly, unless it's quite obvious. Here we are now, only half way through July.We are hearing more and more information and interpretations of the PDT agreement almost every day. It sure is getting confusing! So I am going to take a different approach.

Many of my readers are far from home on holidays. You might not have easy one stop access to all the information you need to know. We have teachers in Asia, Africa and Europe, in airplanes in the sky and in ships at sea. We are everywhere. I know you want to know more.

You are strongly advised to visit our official OECTA website at :http://www.oecta.on.ca especially if you can enter the members' area. OECTA TSU members are also encouraged to visit the official unit website at: http://www.tsuoecta.org I will continue to post my own PDT blogs here with more important news stories and links. I will also post commentary getting into more depth and detail on the different terms, interpretations and so on and so forth, as time goes by. This thread could easily last to December 31st, the date the government has set for our contracts to be in place.

Of course, August 31 will be real interesting too because that's when all our current contracts expire. Who knows what's next? This could drag on for years! Alas! It's still too early to try to say much that's definitive. So for now here is what I am going to do:

You will find below, an OECTA Study Guide. Ha. I know! This is the teacher in me speaking! ;-) It contains links to some main source materials for your own perusal. You are of course smart enough to think for yourself. What I will include is available publicly on the web, from a wide variety of sources. Here it's in one place for your easy access, wherever you might be.

I will add more links as they become available to this blog. Summer holidays, of course, come first! Rest up for the year ahead -we will need it! Still if you can, keep checking this particular blog from time to time. Of course there will be my regular updates too. Please share my blogsite address as you see fit. I am happy to increase my readership and help provide timely and important information, news, and views. It doesn't matter your affiliate. We are all teachers!

Here's what I am including now:

For starters, you will find the MUO [Memo of Understanding] at this link. Look it over very carefully for yourself. You may also need to refer back to it from time to time. It is our primary source. The link is:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/read-the-agreement-between-ontario-and-the-catholic-teachers/article4393004/


Here's a link for OECTA President Kevin O'Dwyer's letter to our members. If you are at home you should also be receiving a hard copy of this in the mail: http://www.elemdp.com/files/ADM-12_13-003-MemberLtrJuly5-12%5B2%5D.pdf

A comparison chart was also included in your mailing. It compares the original PDT terms with the OECTA ones in point form: http://www.elemdp.com/files/ComparisonChart%5B1%5D.pdf

Here is an OECTA PDT Question and Answer link that's making the rounds: http://www.elemdp.com/files/QA_DealJuly6[1](1).pdf

OECTA TSU members might want to refer to our local Bargaining Unit By-laws: 
http://www.tsuoecta.org/forms/TSUTeachersBARGAININGUnitBy-LawsUAGM2010FinalJune142010.pdf


Also our TSU 2008-2012 Collective Agreement: http://tsuoecta.org/forms/TSU_Collective_Agreement-2008-2012.pdf

TSU members can join the news list at: http://www.tsuoecta.org/newsletter/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
Please provide non-board email address -this is union business!

Like I said, there will be more links added as they become available. Hope this helps you get a handle on our PDT agreement for the school year ahead!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

David, I am a member of OECTA (Toronto elementary) and came across your blog in the last weeks of school when I was searching for information on the rumoured agreement. I do appreciate the time and effort you have put in to the blog over the last few weeks since I've been reading. While OECTA has kept its members informed through emails and snail mail, members have not had an opportunity to ask the executive questions that I feel deserve to be answered (or perhaps we have and I missed that memo)? Will members find out how individual presidents voted? The strips to the contract are hard enough to swallow, but to agree to the terms that Mike E. mentions above are mind boggling. What a waste of time local negotiations will be when the parameters are so tight and when the status quo will remain if the deadline is not met. I am trying very hard not to compare teachers with other public sector employees, but it does seem that teachers really got shafted, for lack of a better word, by both the government and their association. Parents may be breathing a huge sigh of relief that school will resume in September, but I can't imagine it will be business as usual when the board's most valuable asset - it's teachers - are feeling so demoralized.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Thanks for the kind words! Ratification by COP was a recorded vote. I have only seen the final tally not how the presidents voted. However, I asked our TSU president to let the membership know how he voted and why. He has assured me he will. Otherwise, if the meeting was in camera, I would venture to objectively say that info is private, unless it was agreed to include it in the public minutes, or OECTA has a policy of releasing either the units, or presidents names as well as the final tally.

Anonymous said...

I hope all the presidents let their membership know how and why they voted, without being asked. I did notice there were 66 votes. Who voted besides the local presidents? Did the occassional teacher locals vote on the MoU?

Kulture Kult Ink said...

The OT's would be represented by Oecta Provincial I believe and got a big concession on fair hiring practices, which is also included in the MOU. Our TSU president has assured me he will explain to the membership how he voted and why. A recorded vote was taken in camera at COP.

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