OSSTF: No Deal On Contract Extensions!

My Teacher Acronym Guide is @ HERE!

Holidazed?!? School's Out -Merry Teacher Christmas!

OSSTF [Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation] provides a rare public update on their negotiations with the troubled Ontario Wynne government. Wynne and the MOE [Ministry of Education] want to extend the existing teacher contracts as they attempt to negotiate compensation under the court's Bill 115 ruling. Links follow. Here's the OSSTF Update: 

The road to a possible extension of the current collective agreements for teachers/occasional teachers and support staff employed by school boards, which had been proposed by the provincial government in September, came to an abrupt dead-end on November 24. Discussions were halted when it became clear that the government was unwilling to honour its commitment that the school boards’ associations would not be allowed to play a significant role in the discussions.

The prospect of a contract extension was floated by government representatives when they met twice with OSSTF/FEESO in September to begin discussions of a possible remedy for the successful Charter challenge to Bill 115, which had been launched by OSSTF/FEESO and a number of other unions.

The Provincial Executive made it clear to the government representatives that any consideration of a proposal to extend the collective agreements would require approval and input from OSSTF/FEESO local leaders. Accordingly, a special meeting of local OSSTF/FEESO Presidents, Provincial Councilors and Chief Negotiators, as well as the Provincial Collective Bargaining Committee, was held in Toronto on September 29.

At the Provincial Council meeting the following day, motions were passed setting out a clear process for the negotiation of a possible contract extension and Bill 115 remedy, as well as a ratification process. A brief was approved at a subsequent meeting of Presidents and Chief Negotiators on October 13, and discussions commenced with government representatives on October 19.

OSSTF/FEESO had sought and received assurances from the government that the school boards’ associations would not have substantive input into these talks, but as discussions unfolded over a total of six dates during the following weeks, it became apparent that the school boards were playing an increasingly central role. And ultimately—though not surprisingly, given our experience in the last round of central table negotiations—it was the intransigence of the school boards’ associations that precipitated the termination of discussions.

Rather than embrace a collaborative approach to problem-solving, the boards refused to consider a mutual-consent process for mid-term amendments to collective agreements. And given the offer of funding for hundreds of additional support staff to assist and support the province’s most vulnerable students, the boards refused to guarantee that the funding would be used to provide that additional staff.

With the government’s failure to limit the role of the school boards in these discussions, and the determination of the boards’ representatives to undermine progress by clinging to needlessly antagonistic positions, it was not possible to come to an agreement.

OSSTF/FEESO is now preparing to commence local and central bargaining next year under the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, and to pursue a ruling for the Bill 115 Charter challenge remedy through the courts. LINK

COMMENTARY

The Supreme Court has defacto ruled that the Wynne government, along with our province's school board trustees, acted in bad faith during 2012-13, when they imposing concession contracts our provinces teachers under Bill 115, aka "The OECTA Road Map". They have now been ordered to offer compensation.

The Wynne government has made it clear that they would like to negotiate a compensation deal, rather than let the courts decide what is to be done. Their plan would also conveniently delay another possible teacher strike or work action until after the next provincial election. It is very unclear to me why we would want to continue to thereby enable them in their despicable folly. 

OECTA: Me Too! Me Too?

The Neo Liberal Wynne government actively pursued a very negative "divide and conquer" strategy with our province's teacher unions again during the 2014-15 teacher CB [Collective Bargaining] talks. They nefariously continued to march to the corporate austerity agenda, paying for corporate tax cuts on the backs of our students, teachers and education system. Most regretfully, as the OSSTF memo shows, the OPSBA [Ontario Public School Board Association] trustee's are still up to their old "negotiation" tricks, with another nasty deceit, with their proposed fall 2016 contract extension talks!

Thankfully, one of our teacher unions is finally, clearly standing up to the manipulative Wynne Liberal's and her trustee bullies on behalf of the province's teachers. But, what about ETFO [Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario], or OECTA [Ontario English Catholic Teacher Union], or for that matter CUPE -Canadian Union Public Employees] representing many of Ontario's education workers?

What next? Where do we go from here?

LINKS:

Teacher Free Speech Archives 2011-2016 @ Here!

Teacher Free Speech + Grass Root Renewal @ Here!

On Bill 115: Glitches in the Matrix @ Here!

On Bill 115 -OECTA: What Was Said @ Here!

The OECTA Road Map + Putting Student's First Act [2012] @ Here!

Comparing the OSSTF + OECTA MOU [2012-13] @ Here!

OPSBA: What Was OSSTF Offered [2015] @ Here!

OLP Teacher Union Showdown [2015] @ Here!

On The Wynne Ultimatum and Teacher Bashing [2015] @ There!

Corporate Tax Cuts 2 B Paid For By Students + Teachers @ There!

One provincial teacher + support worker union @ And There!

COMMENTS: [Use Link below] ...

On Bill 115: OECTA -What Was Said?

My Acronym Guide Is @ hErE! ...

Recently, there has been a lot of continuing discussion here on this blogsite. Also in the wider Ontario Teacher Union Movement. Everyone is still all a buzz about the recent successful Ontario Supreme Court Charter Challenge ruling on Bill 115!

The concern, as we await a "remedy" is quite understandable! Our province's CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF members had their Collective Bargaining Rights violated when the government imposed the July 5th 2012 "OECTA MOU [Memo of Understanding] Roadmap" on all of the province's unionized teachers and education workers. Indeed, here is a link to the court verdict, if you are still in doubt @ PDF!

Much discussion has focused on the OECTA Provincial's role in this debacle!  On a go forward basis, CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF members are quite understandably worried and concerned that they were betrayed and stabbed in the back during the 2012-13 collective bargaining talks. Whatever's left of the crushed OECTA dissident movement often seems relieved that at the very least many of their claims and concerns, for which they were so severely denounced, have now been vindicated. Moreover, most of the OECTA retirees I've talked to invariably wag their head in disbelief. They are very dismayed that this is no longer the once proud, staunch Catholic teacher union that we fought so very long and hard to build! 

OECTA's betrayal of the Ontario teacher union movement, through collaborating with the OLP, aided and abetted the government's decidedly anti-union Neo-Lib agenda. It opened the door to contract stripping and concession bargaining! Wages fell below the COA [Cost of Living]! Our sick day plans were gutted! Our sick day banks clawed back for pennies on the dollar! Special education and other classroom cuts became the order of the day! Big biz tax cuts and corporate welfare bailouts were paid for on the back of our provinces students and teachers! On and on the list of despicable acts continues. The Ontario government continues to wrack havoc on decades of hard fought union wins. It's continued through the 2015 CB agreements. Quite possibly into the new talks, as they resume again next year!

So, what exactly did OECTA Provincial do to become the embarrassment and scourge of the Ontario Teacher Union movement? The judge's ruling seems quite clear! OECTA Provincial broke union ranks when they collaborated with the Ontario Liberal Government. In signing the July 5, 2012 OECTA MOU Roadmap, they agreed to contract strips, which the Liberals were then only too happy, with their urging, to illegally impose on CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF, the rest of the province's teacher and education worker affiliates. This was done in gross violation of the other affiliate's collective bargaining rights vis a vis Bill 115, the so called Putting Students First Act, [LINK] in August 2012. Paragraphs 167 and 168, of the court ruling explain: 

[167] On this basis, the OECTA deal is the only remaining comparator on which the justification for the terms of the imposed agreements is said to be founded. A single agreement does not stand in for the comparison on which the determination in Meredith was made. A single agreement is not the same as: “collective agreements inside and outside of the core public administration”. It is not demonstrative of the “going rate” in the “education sector”. It is one agreement dealing with one small component of that sector.

 [168] Moreover, it is not clear the basis upon which the OECTA agreement was negotiated or whether and to what extent those negotiating on behalf of the union involved felt limited by the parameters. Did free and open bargaining take place? What is demonstrated is that Ontario foreclosed the possibility of free bargaining for the rest of the education sector. In a submission to Cabinet made on August 8, 2012 in support of the Putting Students First Act (Bill 115), the Minister stated that “...[t]he government table team also committed to recommend that the OECTA MOU be embedded in legislation”.243 It was the evidence of the Assistant Deputy Minister that OECTA requested that its agreement with Ontario be embedded in legislation and “...the [Ontario] table team consistently committed to make this recommendation”244. This was done without advice to or consultation with any of the remaining bargaining agents. OSSTF submits that this was a secret agreement.245 It does not matter. By agreeing to put the terms of the agreement into legislation, Ontario compromised the possibility of fair and open bargaining with the remaining parts of the education sector.

Moreover, it seems OECTA Provincial clearly acted to have the other affiliates "post retirement benefit" packages stripped from their contracts. Here's a real bone of contention, especially at the union grass root level! Shockingly, these were benefits that OECTA members themselves did not enjoy! Most unfortunately, the public teachers and education workers who did fight so hard for them over the years got no say, as they were ruthlessly stripped away, in gross violation of their Charter Rights! As Paragraph 178 and 179 state; 

[178] Unifor did not take part in the process until late. The parameters did not refer to post- retirement benefits. The members of Unifor (and, before it, CAW) continued to receive health and welfare benefits until death. This benefit had been in place for 40 years. The OECTA MOU provided that after September 1, 2013, no new retirees in the education sector would be eligible for any employer contributions to any post-retirement benefits. 246 The members ofOECTA did not have such rights. Their removal was no concern to them. The benefit was removed by the OECTA deal without warning and without any opportunity for the affected members of the affected union (Unifor) to take part in the negotiations that led to this result.

[179] It is not that these outcomes necessarily demonstrate substantial interference with collective bargaining. Rather, it is inherent in the process that was adopted and confirmed by these results. The defining of the parameters and the limited nature of the discussions concerning their application, the narrowing of discussions that followed the OECTA agreement and the enforcement of those limits through the threat and passage of the Putting Students First Act serve to show that there was substantial interference with the process of collective bargaining such that there was a breach of the freedom of association. The outcomes to which I have referred are examples of the results of this flawed process and serve to substantiate this breach.

Where do we go from here? It seems to be business as usual at OECTA Provincial. Meanwhile, CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF await a "remedy" for their situation, as required by the judge due to the violation of their charter rights outlined in his Bill 115 Charter Challenge verdict. One wonders: Do OECTA members expect any semblance of union solidarity or support when push comes to shove in the next round of contract talks? Do they think OECTA can just go it alone without the other affiliates, in continuing to collaborate Vichy style with the Liberal government? They should be in for a big shock!

Alas! Regardless of our affiliate, all of us, OECTA members included, know you can't trust a rogue union! Meanwhile the Ontario Ministry of Education enjoys the last laugh! Their divide and conquer strategy renders our teacher movement impotent, with an traitorous union in our midst. The Liberals have all but succeeded, with their OECTA partners, to destroy our once strong and proud Ontario teacher union movement! Much more effectively than even Mike Harris and the Tory's ever could! Moreover, they continue to do so, it seems, with an unrepetent Catholic teacher blessing from on high! For shame!

RELATED READING

On Bill 115: Glitches in the Matrix @ Here!

OECTA: On Manufacturing Consent @ HERE!

OECTA's Fall 2012 Bill 115 Members Letter @ HERE!

OECTA: A Vichy Mentality @ HERE!

OECTA: None Dare Call It Betrayal @ HERE!

Canadian Civil Liberties Letter on the Brock Dissident Dismissal @ HERE!

Corporate Tax Cuts Paid For on the Backs of Ontario's Students and Teachers @ Here!

On Teacher Free Speech + Grass Root renewal @ THERE!

COMMENTS: 

CTF: Canadian Teachers Call To Action!

My Acronym Guide is @ hErE!

It is a media lie that our Canadian teacher union movement only cares about our own wages and benefits! We have a strong social justice tradition of standing up for not only for ourselves, as highly trained and educated professionals, but also for the working families and communities whom we serve daily. 

Teachers know best what tools, resources and conditions are needed to do the job right for the sake of our students, schools and profession. Remember, we actually serve in the education "trenches". It's not just for ourselves. Most of the improvements we seek are needed to help them out too! 

The same cannot be credibly said by the self serving Neo Lib Corporate education "reformers".Their business profits are always the bottom line. Nor our unscrupulous Canadian government lackies and boot lickers. They have increasingly been only too happy to help facilitate the Corporate austerity agenda, providing them with their greedy business tax cuts and bailouts at all costs, just like in the U.S. of A.

On June 1st, the Canadian Teacher Federation [CTF], along with our CUPE, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF teachers and education workers called upon the different levels of government [municipal, provincial and federal] across Canada, to express our concern and make a call for action against corporate educational reform, Neo Lib austerity budgets, and the troubling issues undermining inclusive education, and our members' professional capabilities, vis a vis the statement below;

Belief Statement and Call to Action

The Presidents of the Canadian Teachers’ Organizations met in St. John’s, NL on May 29 - June 1, 2016. The Presidents have developed the following Belief Statement and Call to Action due to overwhelming concerns on educational reform, inclusive education, austerity budgets and teachers’ mental health and wellness.

Belief Statement

WE BELIEVE… that austerity budgets undermine the strength of our public education system as students and their teachers lose out, and families are left out.

WE BELIEVE… that publicly funded public education must be fully funded to support student learning.

WE BELIEVE… that a successful inclusive education model requires sufficient funding and teachers/educators to ensure student needs are addressed.

WE BELIEVE… that assessment of students is best left to the professional judgement of teachers.

WE BELIEVE… that fiscal deficits must not be solved at the expense of the public education system or on the backs of our children.

Immediate Call to Action

On behalf of our over 300,000 teacher members, we call on the provincial and territorial governments across Canada to take immediate action to address the concerns expressed by the national presidents of the provincial and territorial teachers’ organizations.

This Belief Statement and Call to Action is supported by the following ....

[You'll find a PDF copy of the CTF Statement, and a complete list of the signatories @ CTF ]

We are all in this together ...

COMMENTARY

Canada is a diverse, multicultural country, where people come from around the world seeking the good life. We need to make sure we provide the educational opportunities needed for everybody to reach their potential. This is just Basic Social Justice 101! Without the proper resources and conditions, we Canadian teachers cannot help build a peaceful alternative to the exploitation and despair all around us, both within Canada and the world at large. Our students deserve no less, as they are the key to our future. 

As teacher and education worker unionists we each need to support, share and help spread the CTF Belief Statement and Call to Action. Moreover, we need to be eternally vigilant. Our union affiliate's actions must increasingly speak even louder than words. We must continue to proactively fight to build and protect our education system, at the grass root level, for the common good within our own school communities, in the days, months and years ahead!

RELATED LINKS

Guest blog on how the Ontario Wynne government has paid for corporate tax cuts and bailouts on the back of our provinces students and teachers @ Here!

Our teacher unions have also expressed concern over the impact of the so called "Trans Pacific Partnership [TPP] @ Here!

On Why We Need a Teacher Union @ There!

On Teacher Free Speech + Grass Root Renewal @ Here!

Don't believe the Media Lies! Fight the Corporate Agenda! 

COMMENTS:

On Bill 115: Glitches in the Matrix!

  My Blog Acronym Guide is @ Here! 

During the past week we have been treated to a virtual "April shower" of glitches in the old news "Matrix" of the mainstream media. It's also sometimes readily apparent in our teacher and education worker union missives. Little irregularities occur daily, like silences that are almost deafening. Like rips in the news fabric of media lies, revealing fleeting glimpses of the usually inconvenient and forbidden truths that are left out, that we are not told. Suggesting so much more than what we otherwise know about our once robust union movement, and those who govern us in the province of Ontario.

The Supreme Court of Ontario has ruled in favour of CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF; our provinces teacher and education worker unions, in their Bill 115 Charter Challenge! [PDF] The Ontario Liberal government did in fact violate our Charter Rights to fairly negotiate a Collective Agreement by imposing the "Putting Students First Act" aka "The OECTA Road Map" on negotiations during August 2012. [LINK]

The first, most obvious glitch in the Matrix is glaringly obvious! It's hidden in the media's shamelessly muted response in reporting the verdict. Compare that to all of their ferocious, teacher bashing back in 2012-13! Alas! Now that our teacher and education workers' "outrageous" claims of injustice have been confirmed, the news story follow up is mostly conspicuous by it's absence. It's hardly the top mainstream news story of the day! Far from it!

A possibly even bigger news story still lies ahead! Hopefully, it will be one they cannot ignore! CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF have been directed by the judge to reach a "remedy" to the incurred injustices or one will be decided by the court. It will be very interesting to see how much real fight our union leadership still has in them! 

Rumours are that at the very least our front line teachers and education workers will want their "sick day plans" restored. Some are even insisting that should just be the starting point. However, others doubt that the "leadership" can even muster enough fight and resolve for that! And so we watch with bated breath for another glitch in the Matrix to tip the hat to their true intent as our often secretive leaders prepare their demands under the blaring glaze of public scrutiny!

The biggest glitch in the Matrix has without doubt been at OECTA Provincial. We still await an official response as I post this blog. The OECTA members have been advised that OECTA's legal team is looking into the matter. The silence speaks louder than words!

OECTA's name is definitely mud for our Ontario union movement! How deep the shit goes still remains hidden under the infamous OECTA Code of Silence! Who knows? Do they have any legal liability for any of their questionable actions during 2012-13 due to the court decision? Will they benefit from the "remedy" too! One highly doubts they will ever be able to wipe the dirty sheets clean again!

Not only did the Ontario Liberals use OECTA's July 2012 MOU as the Road Map for the contract agreements they insisted upon in Bill 115! [LINK] The Catholic teacher affiliate was also not party to the CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF Charter Challenge! [LINK] Bill 115 was even invoked during a December 2012 hearing against OECTA dissident members [LINK], including Halton [LINK] and Sudbury Elementary [LINK] units and the Metro 7 [LINK] in their failed OLRB MOU challenge at the time! [LINK][LINK]

Indeed, disturbing questions continue to swirl around the fate of now, long gone OECTA dissidents such as Halton's controversial President Richard "Bad Boy" Brock [LINK] [LINK]. Later removed from office in his "fight for fair representation" by a controversial, appointed OECTA Disciplinary Committee [LINK], Richard has no doubt been to hell and back a few times. [LINK] Are he and his passionate arguments for union justice to remain clouded over and publicly unaddressed too? Will the complete story of what's happened to OECTA's Richard "Bad Boy" Brock remain hidden in a virtual Catholic union limbo? Under an OECTA veil of lurid intrigue? [LINK]

In the movie version of the "Matrix", the hero Neo is confronted with two choices in approaching the true reality of the world in which he lives. Neo can either take the blue pill or a red one. With the first he will fall asleep and awake none the wiser that the Matrix even exists. He can continue to live in a fantasy world about what is going on all around us until it totally consumes him. With the other, he will go down a rabbit hole into the Matrix to discover the truth. 

Unfortunately, the truth is not easy to digest and live with, nor is it certain that he will ever be free from being used and abused, much like we are, either under the Liberal government, or even quite possibly, in some cases, even under our own union leadership!

Readers who are interested in bravely going down the rabbit hole to better discover the complete truth, whatever it might turn out to be are directed to my Teacher Free Speech News Archives 2011-16. [LINK] Here are the actual news links to what happened at the time for your reference and erudition. To truly understand where we are at, and where we are headed, it's down the rabbit hole we must go!

Your attention is directed to OECTA MOU Agreement in July 2012 [LINK], the AEFO MOU [LINK] and the passing of Bill 115 in August [LINK], the Bill 115 Charter Challenge in October [LINK], the OECTA OLRB MOU challenge beginning in December [LINK] and the OLP Leadership Convention in January 2013 [LINK]. Teacher work actions continued throughout the winter into Spring 2013 when CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF ratified their agreements [CUPE][OSSTF] [ETFO]. There are also ALOT more archive links for you to study and consider carefully around these "marker" dates, as we watch for the Bill 115 debacle unravel further in the days and weeks ahead!

Should you choose otherwise, thinking ignorance is bliss, don't complain in the daze ahead as you become but more fuel for the voracious unquenchable appetite of the Neo Lib Union Agenda in the province of Ontario! [LINK]

The latest Bill 115 news links are included in my Teacher Free Speech April News and Views blog @ HERE!

My Blogsite Manifesto: On Teacher Free Speech + Grass Root Renewal @ HERE!

OECTA: Manufacturing Consent: My POV on what's gone wrong is @ HERE!

Why You Need a Union; a good one that serves you is explained @ HERE!

Guest Blogs are also most welcome! More details are @ THERE!

Your Comments are welcome below! 

Hope to see you at the deep, dark bottom of the Matrix rabbit hole of Bill 115! Let the truth and justice prevail! 

In solidarity!

David Chiarelli

PS: The final tip of the hat goes to Richard who called it back on Oct 24, 2012 @ IFP.CA

“We feel that the whole MOU and MOU process is unconstitutional within OECTA in terms of our own handbook and bylaws. And in terms of Bill-115, it too is unconstitutional in terms of its grab on local agreements,” said Richard Brock, president of OECTA’s Halton Elementary Unit.

He said there were three rounds of negotiations provincially, the first two being at the provincial discussion tables (PDT), each of which was ratified by the local membership. However, he the local membership and presidents were not consulted and never voted on the MOU before the agreement was signed.

“They totally snatched away items out of our local agreements that we’ve bargained long and hard for,” he said. Brock has been the local president for 25 years.

“A number of items that were clearly removed from our local agreement were items that I personally and my members in general have fought very hard to get into our agreement and have nothing to do even with the government’s initial PDT proposal back in February.” 

Comments:

One Provincial Teacher Union?

CONSIDER THIS:

How can we create one province wide teacher and educational support worker union here in Ontario?

While the Wynne government decides how to repair it's flawed, new CB Act [2015] after the latest teacher contract debacle, the province's teachers and education workers certainly have their work cut out for them too! Each of the unions; AEFO, CUPE, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF included, need to stop merely protecting their own turf and inner cliques. We need now more than ever, to consider the bigger picture together as one!

Divided, and self serving, the different unions have proved largely unable to co-ordinate with any convincing degree of teacher solidarity between affiliates, a credible and effective offensive against the bullying, bashing and questionable OLP deal making frenzy of the past 14 months. 

Our union movement cannot continue to be so disorganized and susceptible to such divide and conquer tactics! It's time to begin, as grass root members from all the different affiliates, a discussion that unfortunately in many cases our plutocrats at provincial will not want to hear! 

Perhaps you have all ready heard the growing buzz about the need for one big province wide teacher union on the social media? Lots of us have! Sometimes, warning letters and threats of disciplinary action have even all ready been issued for those in a leadership position, however minor, accused of engaging in public discussion of the topic. If anyone at "head office" is overreacting that much, then they must be afraid. But of what and for whom? 

Fortunately, your individual teacher free speech comments can be posted anonymously on this blogsite. I don't suspect there are any easy answers for how we could create such a province wide union or what it will look like! However, if anybody would like to share your ideas, for respectful discussion purposes, there's a handy dandy "Comments" section below this blog. Please feel free!

Let me begin with three suppositions, as some basic food for thought:

A STRENGTH TO BUILD ON:

Strength in Numbers: Acting together in solidarity as one provincial union, we could better negotiate and take job actions from a position of strength. We'd benefit as a more powerful, collective force; a united front against the aggressive provincial government scenarios we increasingly face. Be they Rae Dayish NDP, Neo Con Harrisite or Neo Lib Wynne, all of them have been bad news for us; our profession, our students and our schools! The OLP "austerity" agenda, to put it simply, is just more subtle, then the "Common Sense Revolution" or even the "Social Contract". The recent "ultimatum" and it's aftermath shows that we are just in too much danger not to rally our forces! Better late than never!

A THREAT TO AVOID:

Plutocracy: Many of our affiliates are increasingly run by a centralized, executive elite. Often, they are unelected officials yielding most of the resources, calling much of the shots. Could one big province wide union end up remodelling this institutional behaviour into a monolithic behemoth that is even more cut off and unresponsive to it's grass root members? 

We need not be scared off! New ideas require new ways of thinking and rebuilding, such that to paraphrase good ol' Buckminister Fuller, we need to create a new model that makes the old one obsolete. How do we set up a new province wide teacher union that is both more democratic and accountable, and with greater possibilities for direct involvement by the membership? Where and how to begin? No easy task!

NON BARGAINING:

Granted, the "Catholic issue" will be touchy for supporters and opponents of the publicly funded denominational system alike. I am going to suggest that these and other "particular issues" reflecting the great diversity of teachers, students and schools in our province could be accommodated as a separate part of the individual "political" rather than the greater collective "bargaining" units within each board across the province, until the bigger issue of separate school funding is later sorted out, one way or another, due to the urgency of our task. I might be a bit of a dreamer here, but hopefully I'm not the only one, as how to do that will certainly require a lot more reflection too!

So. If interested, please feel free to add your thoughts below:

COMMENTS?

On the Wynne Ultimatum + Teacher Bashing!

[Or "Feasting on the Corpse of Ontario Collective Bargaining!"] 

With the dumbfounding "Wynne Ultimatum" and a mad frenzy of media teacher bashing perhaps unseen since the Harris Years, it's been a "week from hell" for many of our province's teachers and education support workers! Despite the fall of Steven Harper! And quite unfairly so! 

As my October 25th blog below shows, the OCSTA and OPSBA school board bargaining agents ["trustees"] received $4,572,632 in Collective Bargaining payments for 2014-15 alone! Surprise! Guess what? It turns out that's about the same as the total controversial amount received by all the teacher unions combined, from the MOE since 2008! 

News of the teacher union payments has certainly gotten John "Cued" Public and Jane "Ontario" Doe royally p.o'ed! However, please note; the amount was clearly spelled out in a well known MOE July 15th memo [LINK] on GSN grants for Special Education! How come it wasn't breaking news then? Or for that matter still isn't, except on our decidedly underground but still free social media?!? 

Instead, all we hear in the mainstream media is the media teacher bashing frenzy which reached a feverish pitch Friday over the teacher union CB payments! The school board trustees at most got passing mention that they had received some kind of undisclosed funds too. It was usually towards the end of a fiery denunciation of our teacher unions being given a lot of tax payer dollars. Further fuelling the flames, the totals are now considerably more than originally estimated since the provincial auditor released the numbers covering the 3 sets of negotiations from 2008, 
for AEFO, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF combined [LINK]. 

Seems there's an inconvenient truth here; one that's too inconvenient to mention in any detail! Namely that the Wynne government has awarded ALL the parties involved in the troubled negotiations with payments to cover the huge cost overruns associated with, what they now admit, is their new, flawed, collective bargaining model!

No matter that ETFO and CUPE have been without a contract for 14 months! Or that AEFO, OECTA and OSSTF quite frankly settled for bad ones! The OPSBA and OCSTA trustees' huge windfall, in the face of their frequent intransigence in refusing to negotiate, has not been deemed worthy of public notice. Obviously, the neo con media doesn't care about our right wing trustees' $4,572,632 payment. It's out for only one thing -teacher blood!

Premier Wynne has been pretty mum for a long time now on the floundering, nay stalled collective bargaining talks. Then came her rather puzzling announcement Friday. She has threatened to deduct pay from the remaining teacher and education support worker's who still don't have a contract, for -get this: NOT performing volunteer activities for free, if they don't reach a deal by November 1st! 

One assumes that like the other big wig "leaders" in the AEFO, OECTA and OSSTF teacher union provincial offices, she's been hunkering down for some very self serving damage control, especially since the shit hit the fan over the huge pay outs. The same money that some are now referring to as "hush funds" for the whole huge debacle, after the teacher numbers hit the news this week.

Quite arguably, this was payment to cover cost overruns related to the flawed Liberal government's CB process, as the premier has explained. Certainly, 1000's of hours were spent in wasted negotiations going nowhere. In the real world that does cost money. Unless of course our teacher officials pack a veeeeeery big picnic basket. Then raced from far and wide across our province, heading on foot to Toronto whenever beckoned by OPSBA, OCSTA and the MOE. Perhaps sleeping instead in their chairs for days, weeks and months on end. While Kathleen and Liz fiddled about endlessly with their "new CB model" and tempers burned! 

Be that as it may, our supposed union "leaders" still look as thick as thieves in my books. Having feasted on the rotting corpse of collective bargaining in this province, these patricians then took the "Wynne fall" money to just pipe down and go convince their members to accept whatever table scraps they were able to bring home for the plebs, their teacher members. 

For shame! Did they dig in their heels and fight long and hard to get back your sick day banks? No, far from it! They have reportedly negotiated to fund the CB cost overruns with them, as the classroom teachers receive pennies on the dollars under the new sick day bank "cash in" agreement. It's quite the stink! A big mess all around! 

So. What have we learned this week? Well, if you didn't know all ready, it must be a very disturbing truth to learn so late in the game: the media is not a very accurate reflection of reality! Nor do they seem to be prepared to do any owning up any time soon; and the damage is all ready done!

Alas! If you are an ETFO teacher, or a CUPE education support worker, then you know you are getting kicked in the teeth for everybody else's shortcomings, by both our illustrious premier, the Education Minister and our mainstream media! 

ETFO members can at least take some consolation in that your affiliate has unequivocally stated that they are not interested, in nor will they religiously accept, any 30 pieces of silver in payment for this shit storm. You certainly are owed a lot of our respect for still standing on principle! For leading by example!

The notorious OECTA Code of Silence has firmly descended over anything and everything OECTA once again, always a very ominous sign. As for our OSSTF education support workers? Well, maybe you can still get Elliott off his duff to pull something real and substantial for you out of this dung heap. Who knows? Good luck!

The fresh breath of air that otherwise welcomed new hope in Ottawa this week did not provide us with much relief in Ontario, as teachers. But of course education is a provincial portfolio. And even in Ottawa, Trudeau is still a newbie when it comes to actually standing up to our countries real Neo Liberal powers that be. 

The whiff of despair, must seem quite palpable in the teacher and educational support worker trenches. Still, see my field report on the resolute ETFO Wynne Wednesday rally last week. Or the flurry of CUPE member tweets as they once again proudly and steadfastly donned black every Friday. 

We were all once a part of a proud Ontario teacher union movement that stood tall! Let's hope that there are some real leaders out there at CUPE, ETFO and even OSSTF who still are willing to do so as push comes to shove! That they are not about to follow the sad example we've seen so far; of those who will collaborate and acquiesce, giving in to the all too self evident deep, dark cynicism, and manipulation of our Wynne government and a Vichy union mentality. The alternative does not serve us, our provinces working families, or the future generations whom we teach, very well! Let's hope it's not too late!

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