I don’t drink
enough alcohol.
And in an effort
to address this problem, I sometimes look for an occasion in which to
imbibe. Last year, I found myself at a
rousing union meeting, all the important OSSTF acolytes were walking the dais,
wearing suits and enjoying the aura of a hefty gravitas. They outlined the big plan, the blue print for
the Promised Land, that would take us out of the shadows of austerity and into
the milk and honey of real improvements and labour victory. Titillated by the plan, I vowed to crack open
a bottle of expensive vino when the government acquiesced under the pressure of
organized edu-labour.
So here we
are. The deal is done, the fight is
fought, and the spoils of victory are upon us.
But now that I can see the deal, the LCBO will have to wait. This is
more of a kool-aid occasion and I would have to drink a whole lotta OSSTF
executive-flavoured kool-aid to ever think this deal is tasty enough to ratify.
Let us examine the
deal from two perspectives. The deal itself
and the message it sends.
From the very
beginning Paul Elliott, OSSTF president, said we would not settle for anything
less than “real gains” or “real improvements.”
Insert war metaphor here, perhaps something about the magnificent seven. We would fight until “real gains and real
improvements” were realized. These
non-specific terms were never defined and are essentially meaningless, but as
the students say, that’s what he said.
So as I sift
through the deal in search of real gains, here is what I can find: NOTHING.
Real is a really interesting modifier.
When our president uses the modifier “real” he is suggesting that the
improvements must be measured against some sort of standard that would quantify
the improvement as being tangible. By
the way, somebody call my parents, they would be thrilled to know that I just
made use of my Linguistics degree.
So when speaking
about real money in the real world most real people tend to speak about real
purchasing power. I decided to check the
Canadian Dollar against other currencies and it turns out that I make over a
million dollars a year in many countries, (heck, in Belarus and Vietnam us
teaching types are billionaires - wowza).
But being a Billionaire in Hanoi is not the same as being a Billionaire
in Forest Hill. It’s about how far the
money actually goes. Thankfully, there
are tools that let us track the purchasing power of a teacher’s salary.
According to the Bank of Canada's inflation
calculator, $100 of goods in 2012 would cost $104.77 today. So inflation
over the past three years has been 4.77%. Therefore, a top earning TDSB
teacher who earned $94 707 in 2012 would need to earn $99 227.99 today, according
to the Bank of Canada, to have maintained her or his purchasing power. At the
end of this deal (June 2017) the top earning teacher will be making $96 132.34 and it should be noted that the Bank of
Canada's calculation of $99K plus change does not take into account two more
years of inflation before the end of this proposed deal.
So how
“real” is this raise? Your raise really
does exist, you just won’t feel it in any real world sort of way. In fact, it will feel more like a pay cut than
a raise. Is this what the OSSTF
leadership meant when they said “real improvements and real gains?” Somebody please tell me they weren’t just
playing word games when they were selling us a strike strategy.
That Blasted Chart
Yes,
that chart, created by the OSSTF to seal the deal. It compares our tentative contract to the
first offer made by the government and the Ontario Public School Board’s
Association. Why would the OSSTF compare
the offer they accepted to the one they originally deemed offensive and
unacceptable. Doesn’t that legitimize
the offer that was so problematic it put three boards out on the picket line? It’s a little like comparing apples to vomit
- you could do it, but why would you?
Why not compare the proposed contract to our current contract, or the
OSSTF’s original offer, or the contract negotiated in 2008. It seems like they’re trying to sell us
something.
Grid Movement
and Benefits
The
return of grid movement at the beginning of the school year as opposed to the
middle of the school year would on the surface seem to constitute a real
gain. But history and truth are
demanding bedfellows. The Liberal
candidate for London West, Ken Coran, told us delayed grid movement was a
temporary salary restraint that would only be in place for two years, and at
the conclusion of the two year period it would automatically disappear - KAZAAM
- it would be gone. I guess the former
OSSTF President/Liberal Candidate failed to mention this fact to the current
“real gains” president of the OSSTF. Mr.
Elliot allowed grid movement to become a bargaining chip and allowed those on
the grid to endure three years of delayed grid movement as opposed to the originally
agreed upon two years, that sounds like a real loss to me.
As for
the benefits, I don’t see much to put up party streamers about. The notion of the OSSTF taking over our
benefits has been around for a while.
Originally, it was an idea that was intended to save the government
money without having to gut our contract.
They gutted our contract anyways.
And after the MOU was implemented we were told there was a commitment from
the government to explore and implement an OSSTF administered benefits
plan. And that commitment is all that
exists in this proposed deal. So where
is the elusive real gain? Is it in the
4% inflationary trigger contained in the proposal - no. The four percent is only available if we take
over the plan, the language of the tentative deal, says funding for benefits
will remain status quo if the OSSTF does not take over the benefits plan. When did the OSSTF’s administration of a
provincial benefits plan move from being an idea to avoid massive strips to our
contract (which happened anyways) to just a nice idea with a bonus of two years
of inflation funding if we actually take over our benefits? And about that four percent - it galls me to
no end that the parties that put this deal together acknowledge the significance
of inflation when it comes to our benefits but not when it comes to our actual
pay cheques.
The
signing bonus is NOT a raise, as it will not change the salary grid. It’s a bribe, and a pathetic one at that, as
most of it will go to paying off the .73% that will be deducted from your
salary this year for the strike action that barely happened last year. And by the way, that lump sum, is more of an
drippy sum as it will be paid out 1/26th at a time, adding one
percent to every pay cheque you receive throughout the year. My take home pay will go up about $23 per
cheque, before the $16-18 (estimated) deduction to finance last year’s
strikes. Now fellow teachers, try not to
spend that signing bonus all in one place (like at a Dollar Store).
And seriously,
somebody negotiated one more PD day? Is
that a concession on our part? What did we get in return?
But
with all that being said, my biggest issue with the deal being proposed is the
message that ratification would send.
The Message to
the OSSTF leadership
If the
leadership of our union wants to talk tough as nails, old school labour
thuggishiness and then cave with a token fight, we need to tell them it’s
simply “not good enough.” Mr. Elliot and
his cadre said that we would wage war, they didn’t tell us our armaments were
comprised of squirt guns and potato cannons.
We had a strike plan that could have been executed early last school year
and renewed for this year, it wasn’t. At
AMPA we were told seven districts would be on strike if we didn’t have a deal
by May 1, 2015. Three districts walked
the pavement. A “no” vote will tell the
leadership not to overpromise and radically under-deliver. Especially, after our sick days and
gratuities were lost, grid movement was delayed, and we had to take unpaid days
in the previous deal.
The
OSSTF is telling its membership that this is the best deal we’re going to get
(without much of a fight). And that may
be true. But, in the midst of Bill 115, our
leadership went to the teachers of Guelph, York and Niagara with a deal that
they said was the best deal they would be able to negotiate. Two of those districts, York and Niagara, voted
no to the deal and a few months later, the teachers of Ontario were presented a
deal that was better than the rejected deal.
There is always a better deal and we were told to expect a fight for it.
The Message to
the Government
Don’t
fund power plant closures, minor league Olympic boondoggles, ORNGE fiascos, and
raises for cops, doctors, hydro employees, and the LCBO (an aside, the LCBO is an
essential service) while picking our pockets and telling us the cupboard is
bare when it comes to education. Oh, and
don’t you dare go to the media and vilify teachers and tell the public that we
and our blessed “gold plated pension” are the essence of the economic elite.
The Message for
Everybody
What do
South Korea and Finland have in common? They
are typically held up as two of the top performing school systems in the world
by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But they have radically different approaches
to education. They differ greatly when
it comes to standardized testing, to hours spent in the classroom, to notions
of curriculum and teacher autonomy.
Really, the common denominator between the two is the respect the two
systems afford the teaching profession.
In fact, in Finland, teachers are so respected that it is harder to get
into Teacher’s College than it is to get into Med. School.
If we
ratify this deal we are indicating that it is okay to devalue education; that
it is okay to come to the bargaining table with a ludicrous proposal that
undoes many of the advances that have improved education in our province. And that we are okay with the continued
slide towards a more American system of education and the exploitation of
education for political purposes.
If we
ratify this deal we are abdicating our responsibility to work for the
improvement and betterment of education.
Teachers must be the vanguards of education and if we accept this deal,
we are turning a blind-eye to the continued slow motion destruction of
education in Ontario.
The
single biggest variable in a child’s educational experience is the adult
standing in front of the blackboard.
It’s not the policies, nor is it the total hours in class, nor the
curriculum’s nuances, and it certainly is not in the administration of
standardized testing. It’s about real
people working to create real moments and real value for students. And every time education is devalued in our
society, whether through reductions in our compensation package, or strips to
contract language, or suggesting publicly that teachers are overpaid,
underworked, entitled public servants with gold-plated pensions - we lose
something. We lose a good person who
leaves the profession. Or we lose the
young man or woman who was considering a career in education and opts instead
for engineering, or law school, or med. school, or business school, or some
other more respected higher-paying profession.
We lose, and the students lose...and these losses are harder to regain
than a couple of percentage points on a salary grid.
I will
vote no for my ideals, for my finances and for my daughter who will enter the
system in a couple of years.
On
second thought, I think maybe I will have a drink (alcohol, not kool-aid).
Rob
Scott
COMMENTS?
7 comments:
This statement was sent out today by Unit Presidents to OECTA members BEFORE they cast their votes on this tentative deal.-:"Please understand that a failure to ratify this agreement/ a "no" vote will put OECTA members out on strike. In order to attempt to achieve improvements to the current OECTA tentative agreement, a full withdrawal of services will be necessary. Work to rule will not achieve any gains at this point in time."
The last sentence....who made that conclusion?
What kind of negotiation team TELLS members that before a vote?
MOU Part 2.
Here is a question. Who will we be negotiating our benefits with? Our own Union? How will that work.
Here is an interesting question...who will we be negotiating benefits with? Our own Union, how will that work? They will simply dictate. What is left for us to negotiate? Working conditions - don't think so.
For all the members who voted YES to that OECTA tentative deal...good luck in future negotiations. Soon Ontario teachers will be working under Americanized lower pay and work conditions.
Well said!
Did we all forget that the General Secretary sits on OTIP's board? Manulife connections? We know who'll be gaining here... It won't be the teachers. That will be sell out #3. We might as well join another union, There's nothing Catholic about OECTA, not even our president!!
The plot thickens: so do the GS from OECTA & OSSTF! What to do? Remember, motions for OECTA AGM Spring 2016 are due in November. Get busy now!
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