Opening Statement



Thursday 13 June 2013

ETFO Deal Reached!!!

For my Rob Ford blog click HERE! My blog acronym guide is @ HERE!

ETFO ratifies MOU by 91% vote! Details @ RESULTS!


Here's the official ETFO press release @ Done!

Here's MOE Liz Sandals official statement @ Media Release

ETFO has made its MOU readily available for us to see + study. Here are some key links to the information:

Here's the original ETFO media release @ It's official!

Here's the original MOE media release @ Sure is!

Here's the ETFO MOU @ MOU

Here's the ETFO MOU Summary Chart @ Summary

ETFO President Sam Hammond + General Secretary Gene Lewis discuss + explain the MOU for the membership ratification vote @ Yes or no?

ETFO's town hall info meets + on line voting procedures for it's member ratification vote are listed @ Ratification

ETFO's News tweets are second to none @
Lisa
Here is how the news media have been covering the story:

The Globe + Mail reports @ It's a deal!

The Toronto Star Reports @ You bet!

The Toronto Sun reports @ An understanding

The National Post reports @ Big news!

The Brampton Guardian reports @ It's true!

Newstalk 1010 radio reports @ other media?



ETFO decides! On line voting has started ...

Some key points at a glance:

ETFO members will review the tentative deal. There will be a ratification vote on June 23.

There will be local town hall info meetings and an on line vote starting next week.

ETFO members are promised the 2% differential in their salary. Caveat? It will take effect with their next contract. It will not be retroactive.

The ETFO 2% is a "catch up" with the salary of the OSSTF and OECTA teachers. As such it is not a raise. Rather it puts them on equal footing with the rest of the provinces teachers salary wise.

ETFO President Sam Hammond emphasizes the need for a democratic + respectful process to negotiate fair local contracts in 2014. This deal seems to have set that tone.

Hammond does not believe the deal would've been reached without ETFO's prolonged protest.

Two more weeks are added to the maternity leave.

Existing support staff workers levels will be maintained.

Parallels OSSTF + OECTA deals on sick days + non vested compensation. Also with many other terms.

There are however some enhancements to sick days, unpaid days + gratuities. See the MOU.

There is a Health + Safety Task Force being created.

The "Me too" clause can be evoked by the other affiliates [OECTA + OSSTF].

The Province is claiming the deal will be cost neutral as per the provincial budget.

The PC's disagree. The Me too clause will allegedly make it more expensive.

The unpaid teacher leave savings are expected to off set the cost.

CP24 is not providing it's usual live t.v. coverage of the announcements as they are made. Another Rob Ford scandal is the top news story.



Follow Up Articles

[Ed: I will add the different "analysis" as they become available over the next few days, especially in the newspapers weekend editions. Stay tuned for the good, the bad and the ugly ... ]

Don't expect volunteer EC's will just miraculously reappear. The anger and resentment runs deep over the way teachers have been treated @ P.O'd

A trip back to Feb 2012 with Sam Hammond @ Long Road!

The Globes Adam Radwanski claims the OLP is trying to buy back the teachers good will @ $$?

Toronto Sun's Christina Blizzard takes the Tory line that the big spending Liberals caved into the unions demands again @ Wrong!

More coming! Stay tuned!

COMMENTS?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Part 1 - Troll alert. Me. I confess. But I can’t be open about my identity, because I will be “pulled aside” by my Local president (who supports this) and asked to toe the line.

Last June, I put on my ETFO shirt and marched at Queen’s Park, saying to this same government “how dare you!”. I stood there and listened to the leaders of ETFO, OSSTF, CUPE, L'AEFO, and OECTA, livid with indignation, saying how we would fight. I believed.

Last August, I put on my ETFO shirt and marched again at Queen’s Park, saying to this same government “how dare you”. I stood there and listened to the leaders of ETFO, OSSTF, and CUPE, livid with indignation, saying how we would fight. Of course by this time, L’AEFO and OECTA had already reached an appeasement (and yes, I know the historical significance of that word) with this same government, but an appeasement that clearly contained their ability to gain from others who chose to fight.

Last December, I put on my ETFO shirt (over my winter coat) and walked in front of my school, saying to this same government “how dare you!”. I told my parents and explained to some of my students that this was about rights and democracy. I believed.

Last January, I put on my ETFO shirt and walked with 50,000 others to Maple Leaf Gardens, saying to this same government “how dare you!”. In the park before, I stood and listened to the leaders of ETFO and OSSTF, livid with indignation, saying how we would fight. I believed.

When George Thomas and Susan Beattie went public with their self-aggrandizing positions, I intellectually condemned them for not seeing the moral truth for which I thought we stood. For a year, I have been barraged with the condemnation and insults of the public, the press, and politicians, but I put on my ETFO shirt, and stood strong. I believed.

Today, I take of my ETFO shirt and pack it in a box in the basement.

How does this end? We fought for democracy, and we settled for cash. I guess the public was right – it was just about money. We fought for rights, and we settled for “guarantees” of future negotiations. Right, like the “guarantees” we had entrenched in contracts, simply overridden by legislation. I guess the public was right – it was just about protecting our “gold-plated” benefits.

I was frozen on the grid in the 90’s. This year, senior teachers took a hit, so our younger teachers could at least have part of their increment. (wasn’t that also at some point “guaranteed”). Now the younger teachers will vote to accept this, because they understandably do not have an historical perspective on what previous generations of their colleagues fought for. Many of the older teachers will vote to accept this because at least their gratuity is safe (although I hear that in at least a couple of locals, the under-10 cohort will get their miniscule pay-out, but those over 10 will get absolutely nothing, because what those locals had fairly negotiated for retirement purposes wasn’t specifically termed a “gratuity”, and ETFO threw those locals under the bus to get this deal). And, of course, everybody is happy we got our 2% penalty back, and everybody is happy that the fight is over.

When you consider voting, keep in mind the following – a “promise” to restore the 2% penalty in September 2014? A “promise” to never do this gain? A “promise” to not impose changes to the salary grid? These “promises” from this same government that legislatively bulldozed previous “promises” (or freely negotiated contracts, as we used to call them)? And 16 months is a lifetime in politics. This last year has shown that this same government will break any promise if it is politically expedient, and use legislation to impose whatever they want. And a different government will most likely not honour any “promises” made by this government.

Anonymous said...

part 2

I wore my ETFO shirt proudly. I stood and listened as our leaders cried “how dare you”. I walked, I protested, I engaged, I fought, I took a “pause” from those activities that both me and my students cherish. Now we are supposed to agree to getting worked over by this government, simply so the beating we take won’t be quite as bad?

And when we ratify this, as I fear we will in our myopic sense of the here and now, what are we saying to our students, our friends, the public and the media? We are telling them that it was always just about the money and the benefits, and that we can be bought off for a lessening of the financial shots we will take. We tell them it was never actually about rights, democracy, and the fight against totalitarian legislation.

And even more troubling, we are clearly telling this same government, and any future government, to go ahead and legislate whatever you want. We may squirm and scream, but eventually your sledgehammer legislation will win. Peace in our time, yes, but with a clear message that any time you want, go ahead and legislate, because we show here today that eventually we will seek appeasement.

I was never so naïve as to think we would totally regain what we had lost, or that our right to bargain would be restored, but I did believe in taking a stand on principle, even if it meant no agreement was reached. Better to be able to stand and say this was done to us against our will, and we will not accept this, rather than assist and acquiesce to bullying tactics and by doing so, validate those tactics.
I am not a militant, nor a rabid unionist, but I believed. I fought. I wore the shirt with pride. Now the shirt is hidden away, ETFO has conceded the fight on my behalf, and I no longer believe.

Anonymous said...

I will vote no. The kids in my class recieved nothing extra from me this year and that weighed heavily on my conscience (and still does). I knew the 2% was a major goal all along. Sam said so. I lost 200+ sick days I had banked in case of a major sickness (my local retired the gratuity clause years ago so there was never a payout at the end of my career for me). But it does appear to be about money. And I have never, and never will, believe a single promise made by the Liberals. They gutted our collective agreements through legislation but are promising to play nicer in the future? Not gonna get a yes vote here!

Andres Musta said...

I have to agree with anon. The MOU is a net loss and theft on a grand scale. A NO vote is the only way to register our feelings about being dictated to, being denied rights, and the best way to set the tone for the next set of talks in a year's time. The MOU looks kind of nice on the surface, but dig into the fine print and there is very little by way of guarantees, and doesn't hide the fact that OLP is still trying to make teachers pay for problems we didn't create. Generations of teachers have worked tirelessly to create the leading education system we have today; we honour their sacrifices and service by saying no to imposed OLP terms & conditions. We stand in solidarity with all public service workers in rejecting austerity and union-busting freeloader legislation. We stand in solidarity with unionists around the world, by insisting on real collective bargaining as the basis for any cooperation going forward; it is our right and our duty to future generations.
Andres Musta, ETFO member

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