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ONTARIO TEACHERS REJECT WAGE CUTS, UNPAID OVERTIME
By Liz Rowley
(This article is from the April 16-30/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
TORONTO - While Ontario students were on spring break last month, secondary teachers' unions were meeting in conventions, working to stop the escalating attacks on their unions, wages, and working conditions.
Tory Education Minister Janet Ecker upped the ante in early March, announcing that the Harris government would introduce legislation forcing teachers to teach seven out of eight periods in a day and increasing the number of students per teacher. The plan would leave virtually no time for lesson preparation, marking, individual help to students, calls to parents, or professional development.
The legislation will require teachers to be regularly tested for competency, and extend their work day to include extra-curricular activities (which 70% of teachers already do, on a voluntary, unpaid basis).
Catholic teachers responded with a unanimous motion to defy any new mandatory competency testing. Noting the rigorous teacher evaluation and supervision requirements which already exist, teachers were furious at being singled out for yet another bashing by a hostile Tory government.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) President Earl Manners said the proposals amount to a legislated wage cut and unpaid overtime.
"How can you make something that is voluntary and unpaid, `involuntary'? Either then it becomes a part of the program and the 1250 minutes of instruction, or it becomes, under the labour laws, overtime and subject to being paid. So how do you make something that is voluntary, involuntary and unpaid time?...
"We have absolutely no problem with the requirement to provide 1250 minutes of instructional time per week. All of our collective agreements with our School Boards do that now. What the government is trying to do is redefine when a teacher is a teacher, so that they can get by with fewer teaching positions in our secondary schools across the province."
<Headline 18 helv>Ecker greeted with silence
<Body text> Teacher unions traditionally invite the Education Minister to address their annual meetings, but after a week of escalating threats, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association withdrew their invitation to Ecker just one hour before she was to speak.
The OSSTF (public school teachers) adopted another tactic, greeting the Minister with absolute silence. Finally she ditched her prepared remarks to take questions, imploring someone, anyone, to ask a question or express an opinion. But not one delegate spoke. A clearly rattled Ecker then announced that only the children would be hurt by the refusal to converse, and reverted to her prepared text. The silence continued until she stepped off the podium and left the room.
An elated convention applauded and cheered as sessions resumed. Manners thanked delegates and told media that the union was not interested in a war of words. "We are interested in ensuring a stable educational environment. The minister does not wish to consult on the agenda. She only wishes us to consult on the implementation. We're challenging the Minister to provide stable funding to ensure stable teaching and learning conditions."
As a result of legislation to amalgamate school boards and collective agreements in 1997, next fall will see teachers and educational workers across the province hard at it in negotiations, and quite possibly on the picket lines. Most of these workers have not had a raise for at least seven years, some for as long as nine years.
The OSSTF's position is that "any school board that guarantees in writing the maintenance of stable teaching and learning conditions and recognizes that teachers and educational workers deserve a raise will be guaranteed labour peace by this union."
But the provincial funding formula has not changed, leaving local Boards short on operating budgets once again. The Tories hope the public will blame the Boards and the unions for strikes that may close schools this fall.
Many suspect that the Tories' real agenda is to create an excuse to eliminate local Boards of Education, and to take away the right to strike for teachers and educational workers. But the Tories are not in complete charge of the education agenda. The Greater Essex District School Board (the City of Windsor and Essex County) has passed a motion to refuse to implement any more cuts resulting from the funding model, and to deficit budget to maintain programs. This has drawn the line in the sand that many have been waiting for.
Strong support for the Board's position is being generated by parents, teachers, education workers and the community. Other School Boards are considering similar steps. The government has sent in inspectors to examine the books, and has advised that the Greater Essex Board and each of its Trustees is liable legally and financially under Bill 160.
The Toronto District School Board, the largest board in Canada, will soon vote on a similar motion. Clearly, the gloves are off.
In a surprise move, a majority of OSSTF delegates supported an Executive recommendation to pull out of the Canadian Teachers' Federation.
Union leaders say the CTF is weak and is not interested in strengthening the links between teachers and the broader trade union movement. Other affiliates, particularly the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), are not interested in stronger links with labour.
The OSSTF, on the other hand, together with the BCTF, CEQ (Quebec teachers' union) and others in the post-secondary sector, are interested in affiliating with the CLC, provincial federations, and local Labour Councils. Critics of the OSSTF move said the union should have maintained its connections with the CTF while continuing to build new links in the organized labour movement.
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