TSU UAGM 2012

As we all should know the TSU UAGM (Unit Annual General Meeting) is tomorrow (May 16) at the OFL labour hall, 16 Gervais Dr. in Toronto's east end. It starts at 4pm. It is very important for many reasons. First, you vote on the members' resolutions to provide direction for our unit. Secondly, you get a chance to hear the TSU election candidates' speeches. You can ask them questions so you can better decide how to vote.

A few notes:

Resolutions: Here are a few biggies. Resolution 8 would extend all executive terms in office to 2 years. I support this motion because I believe 2 years is a more reasonable time period to forward an elected executive officers mandate. Also I believe it would create a more stable political environment at TSU. We wouldn't always be in a permanent state of election readiness. Of course the change wouldn't apply until next year.

Resolution 23 would require committee members be selected by early July each year. Resolution 24 would require a successful applicant to sign and return a form accepting their appointment to the committee. These are both very important for making our committees more efficient. You will know in advance what committees you are on so you can commence your committee work immediately in September. That would be well before the budget proposals are due. Secondly, when somebody changes their mind the next person on the waiting list can be more immediately offered the opening.

Special Education Committee Resolution: I forwarded this resolution through executive and plan to seek your support. For the past 2 years we have had an Ad Hoc Sped Committee. It should become a formal standing committee. Special education is a huge area of concern. We have been meeting with the superintendents, the department heads and our members to very good effect with our member issue and trends survey. It's time to make this committee permanent in acknowledgement of it's importance for our Special Education teachers.

These are only a few of the resolutions in the handbook that's been sent to each school. Please look it over for much more information. Let me now highlight a few important considerations for the election candidate speeches, Q and A, and meets and greets.

I believe there are 3 important areas you should focus on:

1) Service: Most candidates present a hefty resume. Why are the skills they emphasize so important  in providing service to our members? What have they actually done in their areas of expertise, committee work and so on? What was the process they followed or would recommend? What outcomes did they actually accomplish, or still wish to do? Why is that especially important for our members?

2) Issues: What member issues do they consider most important and deserving of their immediate attention? Why? What specifically do they want to do? How can it actually be achieved?

3) Vision: TSU is a constantly developing and growing teachers' union. We face many challenges in the years ahead. Can the candidate reasonably "see the forest for the trees"? How does everything they want to do fit into the "big picture" for our unit! What do they think the biggest challenges will be? Where do they want to see us headed and how do we get there? What can they realistically do in the next year to that end? Where do they see us 5 years from now? Why is their vision in the best interest of all our members?

Please come to our annual general meeting, ask questions, vote, and have your say! TSU is a very democratic organization. It's very unfortunate when members don't exercise their right to determine our leadership, and the directions in which our teachers' union will go. It's of course easy to get frustrated or complain, but it only takes a little of your time to come out, get involved, and make a difference. See you at TSU UAGM this Wednesday after school!

TSU Election Sleeper

Zzzzzzz. So far our TSU election has been a real sleeper. A snoozefest. Totally under most everyone's radar. I don't have anyone running against me. There's been a slight flurry of flyers hitting your school mailboxes towards the end of the week. Business cards are being used again this year by some candidates. There are school visits to press the flesh. I'm not sure how successful they will be, but as long as they aren't carried on during the school day that's allowed by our election committee too.

Next week should be more interesting. Wednesday at our Unit Annual General Meeting [UAGM] there will be candidate speeches and an audience Q and A. You should find most all the candidates there to meet. Attendance was real low last year when it was scheduled after the election. In year's past when it was held before the election, maybe 100 members would stay for the speeches.A lot, if not most, had made up their mind all ready and were pretty much there to cheer on their favourites. The mood of the audience often did not reflect the actual election results.

I doubt if the election results have rarely been strongly swayed by the debates, IMHO, but they can maybe swing a few voters this way or that. A candidate really would not want to perform poorly but otherwise? Perhaps insignificant in swaying large numbers of voter, some of our elections have been won by a handful of votes. I was tied once. Others have won by one vote! They can make a small but significant difference if a candidate gains a few extra votes. Every vote counts!

Sleeper elections can tend to favour the incumbents. The mood so far comes as quite a surprise. During the past four elections at TSU the positions have often been hotly contested by two opposing factions. This time? So far we seem mercifully short on mudslinging. What a big relief! Personal attacks or dirty politics can turn voters off from voting or even turn them against the belligerent party. We hope as teachers we are above it, but politics can be a blood sport. Like with hockey games lots of the spectators will want a little excitement,  some fighting and so on, truth be told. Long term however, this can create a very toxic union work environment long after the election is over. It can hurt the effort to provide good service for our members. One hopes the current sense of detente will continue to set the tone of this year's TSU executive election race.

Often, in the final analysis, the election winners are the ones who can get the most number of their voters out to vote. This is true federally, provincially, municipally and even at TSU, where elections can sometimes be won with but a handful of votes. It will be interesting if more members vote this year, our first election by phone voting. I'm not sure they will. You need 2 security numbers, for very good reason, but then it also becomes a hassle. It only takes 2 or 3 minutes to vote by phone and will be like using SEMs. The challenge won't be about convenience and security but in making sure members are prepared and actually vote!

Whether this remains a sleeper election or not the results and analysis afterwards should prove very interesting indeed! Please stick around for more coverage and please don't forget to vote on May 23rd!

Our operators will be waiting to help if you have trouble voting!

Who Speaks For Teachers?

Thank you for the congratulations on my acclamation as your 2012-13 TSU 3rd VP. I look forward to continuing to serve you again in the year ahead.

I won't need to campaign for myself but I was all set up and ready to go. I will use this site and my Youtube Channel to regularly provide you with thorough TSU election coverage through until May 23. For the first time in 6 years of TSU executive politics I get to just sit back, relax and enjoy the race with you. Whew!

In my May 3rd report below I provided you with an overview of the candidates for each elected position. I found something good to say about everybody. I will be providing upbeat and positive election news. Please continue to visit my site during the election. 

You are teacher professionals and will want good information so you can decide for yourself who to vote for. I can work with pretty much anybody you choose. We will all be working together to represent you at TSU during a very challenging year ahead. May the best candidates win!

Our contract expires August 31. We have many Joint TSU-TCDSB Committees working on your numerous important needs, such as Professional Development, Safe Schools, Health and Safety, and maybe Joint Special Education soon too. More on a Joint Special Education committee later. Suffice to say you need a strong group to represent you at the TSU executive table.

Include here your need for teacher information and help with your workplace grievances too. The list of TSU executive duties goes on and on. Please understand that it is very important that you vote and choose the best executive possible to help you in the year ahead.

As always, you need good elected reps who speak with and for you. My new election series will be called Who Speaks For Teachers, for that very reason! I will be examining the important aspects you need to consider in choosing your new executive. The focus will be  on three main areas:

1] A Vision for the Common Good of our teachers.
2] Providing Good Service for our membership.
3] The Teacher Issues that will be most important next year.

My election coverage will be interesting and entertaining, possibly even intriguing too. There's so much to consider!

In the meantime, please note that the telephone voting information was sent to the staff reps for distribution today by our election committee. Your will need a voter number, your SAP employee number, and a telephone to vote on May 23. Check out the notice for more details. The candidates fliers and resumes will be posted at the TSU website which is our official source of info on the election. Please visit the site at:

 http://tsuoecta.org

Stay tuned! Visit here for my regular supplementary updates, in which I can review what's happening during the election. I will discuss our new telephone voting system more too.

Here are some important dates to keep in mind:

May 3 was the deadline for candidate endorsements, which is now past. I reviewed the final list of candidates in my May 3 blog below.

May 16 is our TSU AGM [Annual General Meeting]. You will vote on member sponsored motions providing direction for our unit. The candidates will also give speeches and be available for a question and answer period from the floor. Please plan to attend. It will be at the OFL [Ontario Federation of labour] offices. More info and directions to follow.

May 23 is election day. You can vote by telephone from wherever you are between 8-6pm. There will be a help line set up and other election services provided at our TSU offices on Wilson Avenue. The results should be available fairly early avoiding the late night affairs of year's past.

The election race is on.................................Who will win?

Very Tight Race -2nd VP by 1 Vote!!

Our Elections Committee has declared a winner in the very close election race for TSU 2rd VP! Final Results: Frank Bruno [560] Teresa Placha [559]. Frank won by one vote! Official results were sent out by email today. 

Last night, the sequestered votes had to be opened and confirmed because the final results in the race had been so close. There aren't any existing provisions in the new school voting by-law for OT's , LTO's, or anybody else who didn't appear on the available polling station member lists at each school. OECTA Provincial therefore has required a sequestering procedure, to guarantee all our members their right to vote, while trying to safe guard the integrity of our election process. [see my posting below] Otherwise TSU wouldn't have been able to proceed with in school voting this year, as per the terms or lack thereof of the by-law as written up and the passed at TSU UAGM 2010. [See my next posting below that]

The Elections Committee and candidate scrutineers met yesterday for another recount. They would then have also opened and verified the sequestered ballots for 2nd VP since it was so close. The Elections Committee would have had to rule on accepting any disputed ballots, without doubt a contentious issue few members have paid mind to until now. The committee then would have declared a winner. In the end, as we have learned it came down to a one vote difference.

There has been a one vote win in past TSU elections. This is rare, but our elections have often been quite close. Allegations fly. Therewasa tie even once. In this case, our procedure then as it is now, is for the winner to be determined by a name draw from a hat, in the presence of both candidates. The hat draw seems pretty rinky-dink to me, but what else can we do? It's written into our by-laws! TSU election reform often was, and remains, a contentious issue. How can we better deal with all the many issues that can arise in a professional manner? There aren't any easy answers. We are of course bound by our current election by-laws and the decisions of our local TSU Election committee for this year at least.

Kudos must go out to our Election Committee for all their hard work under these most difficult of circumstances. They had to deal with a lot of uncertain issues that arose throughout the election process this year. There are  some interesting school voting resolutions in the UAGM [Unit Annual General Meeting] booklet provided to your staff rep. One concerns online and telephone voting. These will be debated and voted upon Wednesday May 18. All of our members are encouraged to attend. The resolutions warrant your consideration. We all need to work together to better deal with  the problems we have faced with in school voting this year. Please take a look at the resolutions booklet and plan to attend!

So then, we now have a declared TSU 2010-11 Executive as indicated with the stars;

President: Rene Jansen [Completing 2 Year Term]*

1st VP: Gerarrd Ardanaz [589] *      Antonella Dicarlo[530]
2nd VP: Frank Bruno[560]*              Teresa Placha [559]
3rd VP: David Chiarelli [536] *         Sheila MacMillan[529]
Secretary: Gillia Vivona [570] *          Eva Lipinski [502]
Treasurer: Rosemary Lavery [Acclaimed]*

Three Councillors:

Dave Szollosy [677]*
Bianka Hudek [627]*
Luigi Martelli [525]*
Darin Sciberras [490]

What's my opinion? This executive lineup could work if everybody can put aside their personal ambitions until next May's TSU presidential year election, and just focus on serving our member's best interests. Most will. Others will jockey for position. Odds the executive will work it out? Low, but I will hope I'm wrong.

The most immediate concern for me is that everyone involved in this year's election maintain a professional demeanor, regardless of whether they or their chosen candidates won or lost. Otherwise we end up with a toxic work environment. Any lack of professionalism undermines the most important TSU duty of all  -providing the best service possible for you, our members.