OECTA Proposal to OCSTA and the Crown:
[Highlights mine.]
Note: Public info independently provided courtesy your teacher free speech site!
As determined by the Association, should any of the 2012-14 collective agreements contain superior provisions to any central term(s) or conditions, those superior provisions shall endure and prevail.
As determined by the Association, should any of the 2012-14 collective agreements contain superior provisions to any central term(s) or conditions, those superior provisions shall endure and prevail.
Eliminate all existing superior provisions from local
agreements and replace with central terms
(This provision will negatively impact every collective agreement in the
province)
Term • 3 years – September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2017
Salary Grids • All teachers move through and across the
salary grid as per the collective agreement • Increase all grids, allowances,
rates by COLA +3% each year of the agreement
Hiring Practice • OT to LTO to permanent hire
continuum with seniority and qualifications as the key factors
Occasional Teacher Roster Cap • Minimum threshold
established with opportunity for local ‘fine tuning’
Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting • No additional
requirements, restrictions or limitations placed on teachers • Teachers
exercise their professional judgment
Return to the Bargaining Unit • Status Quo
Preparation/Planning and Workload • Prep and Planning time
is teacher directed • Assigned in minimum 40 minute blocks during the 300
minute instructional day • Prep teachers teach only subjects/programs with
reportable strands • Number of subjects/programs assigned to Prep teachers
shall be kept at a minimum as determined by the JSC • For FDK teachers 1 of
the 9 PA Days shall be allocated for FDK preparation and planning activities •
All teaching timetables and supervision/on call assignments shall be assigned
in a fair and equitable manner • All on-calls or supervision assigned to an OT
shall be credited to the absent teacher • Divisional, Department or similar
meetings restricted and scheduled by the teachers involved • IEP
consultation/completion release time to be provided • All teacher absences
replaced by an OT
Preparation, Planning and Professional Time –
Occasional Teachers • Status Quo
System Principals • Status Quo
Maternity Leave – Status Quo • Minimum 8 weeks at
100% of salary for teachers or LTOs dependent on term of their contract
Paid Leaves of Absence
• Status Quo
All other leaves •
Status Quo
Sick Leave and Short Term Leave and Disability (STLDP)
• Definition of illness includes absence for valid health related reasons
including appointments with health care professionals and the illness of a
person other than the teacher if the person is a member of the teacher's
immediate family or the person is someone for whom the teacher is the primary
care giver • Increase Sick Leave available to 15 days (pro-rated) at 100% of
daily rate • Maintain STLDP at 120 days (pro-rated) at 90% of daily rate •
Unused Sick Leave is carried forward to the next school year to “top-up” STLDP
days • Same Sick Leave and STLDP for LTO teachers (pro-rated) • No third
party adjudication required for access STLDP days • Absences due to illness or
injury of 5 working days or more may require a note from a medical practitioner
• Unless there is an allegation that an absence is culpable, the absence shall
be deemed to be an absence due to illness • WSIB claimants have access to Sick
Leave and STLDP as above
Long Term Disability and Extended Health/Life/ Dental
Benefit Plans • Board-paid LTD plans are maintained in DufferinPeel, Huron-Superior
and London District • The Association shall be the policy holder of the
benefit plans for all teachers in Catholic schools • The Boards/Crown shall
contribute the necessary funding on an FTE basis to maintain/enhance the OECTA
teacher benefit plans
Sick Leave/Short Term
Disability Plan – Occasional Teachers •
Same sick leave and STLDP for LTO teachers as permanent teachers (see previous
sick leave and short term leave disability plan proposal slide 7)
WSIB Top-Up • To
100% salary.
Working Conditions and Workload • Full Day Kindergarten
class caps (same as Primary Classes) • Address the issue(s) of combined
grades, class size and composition • Special Education including completion of
IEPs, funding of programming, replacement if absent, assignments taken over by
part-time administrators, etc…
Staffing • Timing of surplus and redundancy notices •
E-learning – Staffing and Working Condition Equivalencies • Credit bearing
courses – Staffing and Working Conditions Equivalencies
Dispute Resolution/Enforcement Mechanism • Expedited,
binding arbitration to resolve any differences arising from the interpretation,
application or administration of any central term
Recall Rights • A teacher declared redundant shall have
indefinite right of recall
Changes in Full-Time Equivalent Status • Establish
processes to bring clarity to increases and decreases in FTE status
Supported Schools • Funds generated for Supported Schools
to be spent on Supported Schools
Joint Board level
Staffing Committee (JSC) • Role clarified and reinforced
Occupational Health and Safety • Equity in training for OTs
and regular day school teachers • Building keys provided to OTs as required •
Process for dealing with Harassment Complaints to be established •
Information, assessment and reporting on Risks of Violence in the
Workplace
Job Security • No ‘contracting out’ of Bargaining Unit work
Early Retirement
Incentive Program • $25,000 for early retirement
Attendance Recognition Program • One day salary for using
less than 6 sick days
COMMENTS:
COMMENTS:
50 comments:
ROFL laughing. What a ridiculous opening offer. Cut the b.s. OECTA and get to work. 9-5 should be a teacher's day. End this b.s. and bring in the right wing Liberal hammer!!!!!
Why 9-5pm? What about other duties? Also, do you think teachers don't do enough work?
Dear Anonymous,
A teacher's work day of 9-5 would be wonderful.Then I wouldn't have to mark essay/tests, call/email parents and admin, plan lessons or attend parent teacher conferences til 9 or 10 every night during the week. Would that mean I don't have to do any of the above on weekends too? Fantastic-I always wondered what it would be like to have a "normal" job. Great plan. Sign me up!
9 to 5? Hmmm I already do a 7am to 4:30 pm every weekday. Apparently someone in the public wants me to work fewer hours. Finally someone who sees that teachers are putting in way more hours than we should;-)
Start painting the picket signs. This is going to get really ugly.
This offer has some good points. It is going to take forever to get back what was given away with the MOU. But it is a start...
Provincial Bargaining in Ontario is going to end up like provincial bargaining in BC...lots of strikes, no negotiated settlements, busy courts. And our Unions all got on this bus willingly!! Time for change!
A quote from the Godfather Part 1-" Every now and then you got to go to the mattresses." Anyone hired after 1998 never experienced what it is to stand up and fight for your job.
I read in the papers that the offer had no salary increases, but i see a COLA of 3% x 3 years. So does that mean teachers will in fact get a small increase?
Thanks for posting this vital piece of information David. Thanks to Provincial for sending it to you.This is transparency. Don't know why Halton Elementary's President and Unit Executive said it was confidential (The three gentlemen at the front table that night argued it should be available to all Oecta members at that Thursday night meeting).
WHY?!
Why is this being publicly posted? Talk about undermining the bargaining team. There is free speech and then there is smart speech. Posting this stuff is just plain dumb and hurts teachers in a big way.
Other than that...cool website!
Thanks for this. But will respectfully disagree. This info is public now. Has been since it was shared with OECTAs 100,000 plus members. Bad people will find out anyway. Shouldn't teachers be able to discuss among ourselves without being controlled and relying on the "experts" all the time? Bad things seem to happen when we are kept in the dark....
Teachers need a reality check and moma Kathleen has just the thing for you. Thanks for the money for the campaign says she.
I dunno: does this proposal seem rather thin pickings, considering all that has been lost?
I just would like to know why it is OK to keep counting on one sector of the population to balance the budget they messed up? We f.... pay a lot of taxes too. Enough! people. I am all for equality but we gave at the office last year, thanks!
David,
If it was distributed to 100,000 people that how is that keeping people in the "dark." Our debate should not be as public though. This is simple bargaining etiquette. We should debate, but any divisiness, which is in clear display on this website, will damage our side. Debate is great and vital, but the way we do it is even more important. Your forum simply hurts our cause. Let's debate this stuff at AGM, in our dep't office and best of all, at the pub on Fridays. Not on a website, not during a crucial time in the process.
OECTA is dancing to the tune of the Wynne Liberals. Look for Ryan and Jarvis to get plume appointments......No way is that guy going back to the K classroom. They've been loyal Wynne Liberals and soon will be time to collect.
Secrecy and reliance on so-called experts led to no vote on the MOU for Oecta members and historically the most cutbacks ever. By the way David- Oecta has not emailed this proposal to ALL members of the Halton Elementary Unit. What is Provincial paranoia about releasing this proposal to all Oecta members who pay $25000 to $30000 in union dues to Oecta during their teaching careers? It's the old outdated message that the Oecta members serve the Oecta Secretariat/Provincial Staff, while it should be the opposite.
Joke overheard recently- "Is the Pope Catholic? Yes, and so is Rene!" Just sayin'. AGM delegates pay close attention.
Dear Anonymous March 9th and David,
The "three gentlemen at the front table that night" were, from left to right:
Mr. Vincent Enright
2nd Vice President of the OECTA Halton Elementary Unit
Mr. Horst Schweinbenz
Retired OECTA Hamilton Unit President, former OECTA official, parliamentarian, and Chair of the meeting
Mr. Patrick Durka
Councillor, OECTA Halton Elementary Unit
I would like to thank them all, especially Mr. Enright who repeatedly raised the issue, for their support for our members who believe in transparency and accountability in the bargaining process.
Antiquated notions of "etiquette" have no place in our modern bargaining process if it means keeping our members in the dark.
Thanks again, gentlemen!
Re: Bargaining etiquette original posted comment which stated that David's forum and its publishing of Oecta's First Proposal hurts our cause.
What bizarre nonsense. Here's what hurt our cause forever-the MOU.
Not giving dues paying Oecta members a vote on the MOU hurt our cause.
Oecta Provincial Presidential Candidate Ann Hawkins voting YES to the MOU hurt our cause.
Ann-What kind of pro-member trade unionist does not allow her union brothers and sisters to vote on a contract? That decision by Ann Hawkins hurt our cause.
Electing a non-Catholic teacher to the position of Oecta Provincial President-that will hurt our cause and could well spell the end of Catholic Education in Ontario. AGM Delegates ask your unit presidents about this question of who is Catholic and who isn't.
Transparency and accountability to dues paying members-That will NOT hurt our cause.
Where are ETFO AEFO and OSSTF First Proposals. Let us compare!
What a low, unchrist-like blow. The elections should be about ideas, experience and skill...and we should debate those things wholeheartedly. But to play the Catholic card is alarmingly hateful and simply put, not in keeping with our Catholic ideals of respect. Both candidates are honest, hardworking, morally grounded and dedicated to the cause of Catholic education. If Ms. Hawkins had a problem with the Catholic issue she wouldn't have dedicated her career to teaching and serving in it. Stick to the issues or go join the republican party with that nonsense.
This "members in the dark" mindset is so unfounded. Everyone agrees that transparency and openess are crucial for union objectives...this is obvious. What is more obvious is that sensitive bargaining straregies and ideas should not be in the public domain. Yes, inform the members. Yes, explain the process. But NO! don't debate and illustrate the infighting and let the bargaining team do their vital job.
I suspect the genesis of these types of fear-mongering comments is from the MOU situation. Let's be clear though...transparent even...the MOU was imposed on us. Oecta had no mechanism to vote yay or nay...nor would that have mattered to the govenment. So can we all just please get over this damaging divide of the MOU and focus on unity, smart strategy and progressive unionism?! Or are we going to continue to shoot ourselves in the foot?
And by the way, etiquette is never antiquated; it can evolve and improve. I just see no foundation at all for the comment that we are "in the dark." Its an insult to all of members, our procedures and the readers of this blog.
Once the info is posted to 10's of 1000's of people, members or not, it is no longer secret. BTW: The bad guys and gals would've known it and been sharing it already. This is not fear mongering but a simple fact of life in the electronic age. It would seem to me, with all due respect, you are using an outdated model of "smart strategy" and confusing it with an attempt to manufacture consent for the unions dubious "expert elite" while they continue to use the "mushroom formula" instead: keep us in the dark and feed us shit! Strong words I know, but experience is a fine teacher! Ignore at our peril!
Anyway, see my latest blog ....
Solidarity!
David C
I have only been teaching for 7 years but this "young" member can easily understand how using terms like "expert elites" damages our unity...badly. Creating an us vs. them mentality within our ranks is embarrassing. And if you really do feel that way, don't publicize it. Do it at the AGM, do it person to person, do it over dinner. Not here, very irresponsible.
It needs to be said, for the sake of Solidarity. Get over the MOU! It was an awful situation for everyone. As a collective we have a lot more in common than not. We have a lot more at stake than not. We are better than just that one big moment in oecta history. So why continue with this nonsensical division?
And regarding the strategy. Yes, we are in an electronic age. Have been for quite sometime. All the more reason to be protective of our healthy debates. It means we need to be even more disciplined to ensure we are helping out our bargaining team. But reading things like "dubious expert elite" is so disheartening it makes me wonder if people actually want unity and consensus. Its sounds like the tea-party's approach of fear and misinformation.
True solidarity requires MEANINGFUL dialogue, mutual-respect, intelligent disagreements, and above all a progressive mindset for the union. Comments and posts such as your's make solidarity damn near impossible.
In Solidarity
True solidarity meant a vote for all Oecta members. That did not happen with the MOU.
Canada is a democracy where citizens have a vote. People have sacrificed their lives for this freedom in past wars.
So let's look at Oecta after the MOU. Catholic teachers have for 3 years suffered wage losses and unpaid days. Oecta Secretariat Staffers got a wage increase every one of those years.
If Kevin O'Dwyer truly believed in the MOU he forced on all teachers and did not let them vote on it, why did he not go back to the classroom and work side by side with all his fellow teachers? That would have been the appropriate move.
No, Kevin O'Dwyer escaped from the MOU and almost doubled his salary as an Executive Assistant with The Provincial Oecta Secretariat. Better yet, Kevin asked for and grieved for his sick days balance to be transferred over to his new job. Teachers in Ontario did not have that luxury after the MOU. Actions speak louder than words here. Fortunately, an arbitrator said no to Kevin. NO SICK DAYS FOR YOU!
It is to OECTA's credit, in the present sense, that this info has been made publicly available. Now how about for ETFO? OSSTF?
David how did you get a copy of Oecta's First Proposal?
From the latest ETFO bulletin: OPSBA and the Crown presented their central bargaining agenda to ETFO’s team on February 23. The tone established during previous meetings changed considerably when OPSBA tabled numerous disturbing concessionary demands. Those demands included:
increased supervision time for teachers;
no supervision time limits for daily OTs who are called in for assignments that are shorter than a full day;
complete control by principals and school boards over the quantity and timing of diagnostic assessments – which would undermine the support for teacher professionalism and teacher judgement clearly expressed in the Ministry’s January 2013 document called PPM 155: Diagnostic Assessment in Support of Student Learning;
the ability for principals to direct how teachers and long-term occasional teachers use their prep time;
a requirement that ETFO endorse the revocation of Regulation 274 to the Ministry;
the removal of all staffing and hiring language in local collective agreements;
the removal of all class size language in local collective agreements;
the removal of all entitlements in local collective agreements that are superior to central items;
a written agreement from ETFO that the work day goes beyond the instructional day (i.e., teachers can be assigned teaching/non-teaching duties before, during and after school by their principal or school board);
changes to sick leave provisions (90% coverage to 85%);
provisions that allow principals and vice principals to return to teacher bargaining units and be placed in teaching positions ahead of surplus teachers and occasional teachers and with their seniority intact;
DECEs may be assigned responsibilities outside FDK classrooms when the principal decides.
Monetary concessions demanded by OPSBA and the Crown included:
0% funding for compensation;
the 97 day delay on salary grid movement would remain;
the elimination of all degree and qualification-based allowance language (i.e., allowances for Masters degrees, PhDs, etc.) from local collective agreements;
the elimination of all pregnancy and parental leave superior entitlements from local collective agreements.
As an OSSTF member, I don't want my negotiators working at the negotiating table in public. I know I will get a vote on any deal that is reached - as I did the last time. I can, however, understand OECTA members being very skeptical of what their "leaders" are doing at the table. No one wants a repeat of what was done on July 5, 2012 - a day that will live in infamy.
I think ODwyer actually got the days back. Good job Personnel committee.
Not sure how it is the "Catholic Card" ... or hateful. The fact is why is it that she never disclosed the fact she wasn't Catholic over the years. If it is a non issue why was it never blended into a speech or disclosed somewhere. Sorry if you can't see the shock it has caused throughout alot of the membership. No one is taking anything away from her career or anything she has done in her time at OECTA. With the exception of voting for the MOU. But how can you preserve or protect Catholic education when you are not even Catholic. Surely you can see how that would make OECTA a laughing stock in the public eye!
After the destruction to solidarity of the MOU from its expert elitist leaders...and the loss it caused teachers in OECTA, OSSTF, AEFO, and ETFO, OECTA owes the entire Ontario teaching profession SUNSHINE TRANSPERANCY in everything it is doing this time around.
David, this was in a news release sent to Halton Elementary Unit members :
"As more information is released to the membership from the Provincial office, there will also be rumour and speculation. Please note that the best sources of information when you have questions and concerns are not mainstream media, nor social media, nor blogs, nor colleagues from other Union Affiliates.
Your best sources of accurate information are the OECTA Provincial website, Provincial bargaining updates, Halton Elementary Unit updates and from me, your HEU President.
Halton Elementary Unit members please look at David's blog entry of Sunday September 8, 2013, when this unit president felt differently about this blog.
Also, a quote comes to mind, "The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."-Niels Bohr
Interesting how people change once they are elected.
OECTA Elections:
Ann Hawkins -don't vote for her she's a non-RC Christian
Rene Jansen -don't vote for him he's Dutch
Liz Stuart -don't vote for her she English
Barb Dobrowoloski -don't vote for her I cant spell her name
Andrew Donihee -don't vote for him he Irish
Michel Derykx -don't vote for him he's from Hamilton
Anthony Rocchio -don't vote for him his name ends in a vowel
Mike Wozniak -don't vote for him he's Polish
Chris Cowley -don't vote for him he's too young
Rick Beslile -don't vote for him he's French
Richard Schreder -don't vote for him he once practised Law
Tracey Pacarski -don't vote for her she's a woman
Angelo Ippolitto -don't vote for him he's a man
Sean Roberts -don't vote for him he has 2 first names
Sound silly? That's because it is. If a member is good enough to pay OECTA dues, they are good enough to be a candidate for election!
And they don't have to vote for them .....
In all fairness, Catholicity is central to what a lot of members believe is essential for their "Catholic" union, and as due paying members they have every right to vote accordingly.
That said, I find the issue unseemly. Plus I don't believe Rene Jansen is pursuing it. There are lots of other great reasons to vote for him, many listed above.
In the OECTA AGM Elections post above saying who to not vote for and why, why are 4 former AGM candidates' names missing?
Why did they withdraw this close to the AGM?
Why is OECTA releasing no information about their withdrawal?
Why did OECTA not send out a printed AGM 2015 Resolutions book to every OECTA member like every year in the past?
How is this an accurate release of information to OECTA members?
These are some questions that the AGM Delegates should be asking before they cast votes for people.
This non-release of information sure looks like the non-release of any information about the MOU all over again.
This non-release of information is transparency and accountability to OECTA dues paying members?
Yes, what about that?
Attention all OECTA propagandists-time to face the fact that despite your best efforts (which in my opinion are intellectually insulting given our profession, and undeserving of a passing grade in the Thinking/Application Components) due paying members, especially those of us who became teachers to actually teach children and not escape the classroom, will no longer tolerate OECTA's flagrant disrespect for us, or our dignity.
True dat
The more I look over these initial proposals, the more I realize they are nothing more than status quo. I see little but very basic housekeeping here. The MOU stays intact w/o challenge. Local autonomy is gone. Most regretfully, everything is now nicely being centralized nicely for the provincial OLP to come snap up sometime in the near future when future generations can kiss their union butts good bye.
Will your next contract, after this one, merely be a government dictated pamphlet to file in the garbage can? Inquiring minds need to know. Nobody else seems to care anymore. Too bad!
The union is called Ontario English CATHOLIC, yes CATHOLIC, Teachers Association. And even more importantly, Ann Hawkins voted YES to the MOU and did not let you vote. Vote Rene for Provincial OECTA President! BE THE BALL DANNY!
Mike Harris was right about UNION BOSSES! Look at OECTA!
OLP wants control? or is it Provincial OECTA? Remember how provincial pushed centralized benefits? Did we forget who's on the Board of OTIP and signed the MOU encouraging Manulife? OTIP are brokers they get finders fees. Also OTIP demands exclusivity.
Regardless, Mike Harris was no friend of the teacher members and did not say that out of any respect or concern for us, far from it.
We seem to be spending our OECTA union dues on high priced salary and benefits and raises for those who fail. Two court cases that happened within the last few months demonstrate this point https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onla/doc/2014/2014canlii57609/2014canlii57609.html
and http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/24/internal-dispute-distracting-oecta-union-insiders
Oecta's bargaining team today looks very similar to the MOU one in 2012. MOU former President Kevin O'Dwyer is still on the team after bargaining for the other side in the last round! He and his provincial executive team which included Ann Hawkins did not worry about making gains for the membership at that time. Have they had a change of heart since? Not according to Kevin's recent arbitration. Do members want to take that chance? OECTA Provincial must be the only existing organization that rewards failure with promotions and cushy positions for life. It's too bad that the younger members are all that is left for a sacrifice now that the baby and the bathwater have been given away in the MOU.
Much ado about nothing. The MOU gave away everything -the baby and the bathwater. All that is left are the teaching positions of the younger members! Perhaps they would like to elect Ann Hawkins so she can continue the spirit of the MOU that she eagerly signed together with Kevin O'Dwyer (current member of the OECTA Bargaining Team 2015 after his blank cheque giveaway in the MOU 2012).Plus le change plus le meme chose!
Looks like our OECTA "leadership" is looking out for something other than member rights and interests. Get ready for MOU2!
This Halton Elementary Oecta teacher is still waiting for my copy of OECTA's First Proposal to the government to be sent from Provincial and my unit president. Where is it?
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