Continuing Education Instructors' Bargaining Unit Newsletter:

Volume 1, Issue 4: April 7, 2003

President’s Message

Hello fellow CEI Instructors. This will be remembered as the winter that wouldn’t quit. We are heading into the final lap of the school year. I know it’s been a busy one for all of you, and I’m sure you’re all looking forward to warm days and sunshine to pick you up.

We are about to revamp our constitution to make it a little easier to follow its rules. David Brown, Doug Pattyson, Linda Huber and I got together to go over the changes that had been suggested and eventually arrived at the final product which was brought to the membership at the general members’ meeting and passed on Monday, April 14. Thank you to those who attended. Copies of the new Constitution are being printed for every member of the bargaining unit and will be distributed at the Annual General meeting on June 2. Until then it can be accessed on the District website.

It is also an election year for this bargaining unit. I have to give a HUGE thank-you to the present executive, who have helped me through this year. They have been very supportive, and very easy to work with. To those on the executive who have decided not to run again, I want to extend a special thank you for your dedication and for your work on behalf of the membership and the OSSTF.

To those who have not yet had an opportunity to get involved in the OSSTF, I would ask that you give some thought to running for your executive. It really is a fun and rewarding experience. Nomination forms will be forwarded to all work locations the first week in May, and the Annual General Meeting will be held on Mon. June 2, 2003 at Wheable. A memo will go out to all membership before the meeting.

All CPIC forms were to be in to the Board office by March 7,2003. If you failed to sign and return the form on time, you will be required to obtain your own police check at your own expense. The police check MUST be back in to the Board no later than July 31, 2003. If it is not, you will not be working come September.

E-Mail Addresses

The only means of contacting some of our membership by e-mail is through First Class. Because this is the Board’s system of operation, we prefer not to use it to send OSSTF information. Wendy Hirschegger is compiling a list of members’ home e-mail addresses to make contact easier and used by the District 11 office only for OSSTF business. If you have a home email address, please inform Wendy as soon as possible.

Pay Equity

The pay equity committee continues to struggle along! There has still been no male comparitor found. Many of the positions within the board which were once male dominated are now considered to be "gender neutral" . However, the committee is committed to seeing this very difficult task through to its end and meetings continue with Lenore Alexander.

District 11 Website

Wendy Hirschegger has done a phenomenal job of getting our website up and running. I would encourage everyone to browse the website.

Retirement

If you are retiring this year, please be advised that you are required to notify (in writing) your direct supervisor (Sheila or Kay), and Beth Strong at the Board office.

A copy should also go to me at the District 11 Office. While there is no contractual date by which a retirement letter must be submitted, please do so as soon as possible so as not to be left out of the District 11 retirement festivities. We definitely don’t want that to happen.

Bargaining Unit Election

As previously mentioned, there are elections upcoming in June.

Since the revised Continuing Education Instructors Bargaining Unit Constitution was passed at the general members’ meeting on April 14, nominations will be called for the following Executive positions:

The descriptions of these positions can be found in Bylaw 8 of the newly revised Constitution.

We must also elect six (6) members for the Collective Bargaining Committee at the Annual General meeting.

Please give some serious thought as to who you would like to see in these positions, and take the initiative to nominate someone. Nomination forms will be sent out by May 2, 2003, and will need to be returned to District 11 Office by Thurs May 29.

Personal Thank-You

As my term draws to a close, I want all of you to know what a good year it’s been. I came in green as grass, and come June I’ll still be green as grass! However, I can honestly say it was fun. The best part was being able to talk to other instructors, and being able to add a few more faces to names I’d only heard. I want to thank all of you for your kindness and patience with me as we travelled this year’s journey. To those of you I didn’t get to see, I apologize. I didn’t have the flexibility of Arnette or Sheila because I am in the classroom all day. However, I hope soon I will get to know more of you….I’ll keep working at it.

Collective Bargaining

Linda Huber and I will be attending the Collective Bargaining Committee conference in Toronto on the weekend of April 25.This is a most helpful conference for people interested in collective bargaining. Linda and I are taking separate workshops in order to garner as much knowledge as we collectively can.

Soon after this conference, we will be forwarding a survey to the general membership to find out what your priorities are for our next round of bargaining in 2003. As we have worked with this contract for a year now, we are able to see some of the "kinks" in it. I have maintained an ongoing list of some of the articles that really need to be re-visited. I know at some of the meetings you, the membership, have had some very good suggestions for bargaining. We need you to come forward with some of those good suggestions on the survey!!

We also need you to help us compile a draft proposal next fall. Please keep all these little "jobs" in mind. Remember, it could be a totally brand new executive, and we want to support them as much as we can.

Linda Huber and I will be attending the Collective Bargaining Committee conference in Toronto on the weekend of April 25.This is a most helpful conference for people interested in collective bargaining. Linda and I are taking separate workshops in order to garner as much knowledge as we collectively can.

Soon after this conference, we will be forwarding a survey to the general membership to find out what your priorities are for our next round of bargaining in 2003. As we have worked with this contract for a year now, we are able to see some of the "kinks" in it. I have maintained an ongoing list of some of the articles that really need to be re-visited. I know at some of the meetings you, the membership, have had some very good suggestions for bargaining. We need you to come forward with some of those good suggestions on the survey!!

We also need you to help us compile a draft proposal next fall. Please keep all these little "jobs" in mind. Remember, it could be a totally brand new executive, and we want to support them as much as we can.

Latest Information on the PLP

The following motion was carried unanimously by the March 2003 OSSTF Annual Meeting: "It is the policy of OSSTF that the Ontario College of Teachers' Professional Learning Program (PLP) should be withdrawn."

The OSSTF boycott is continuing to be successful. The college has hired 66 PLP staff, not the 110 they projected in their PLP Business Plan. They have accredited 415 providers rather than the 1370 they anticipated.

Don't be fooled by the college's attempt to make the PLP more palatable. The college claims, for example, that the PLP now recognizes individual learning. The reality is that an Individual Learning Option must still be written up as a course, with a formal application and course rubric submitted from an accredited provider, with a formal assessment component and with "results" able to be submitted only by the provider. Hardly a way to recognize spontaneous, on-the-job learning from peers!

OSSTF is now participating in a task force, hosted by the Ontario Association of Deans of Education, including all teacher federations, the college and the ministry, in an attempt to work out an alternative to the PLP which can be presented to this or the next Ontario government. So far, the task force members (with the exception of the ministry reps) have agreed on a background paper which is strongly critical of the existing program.

Meanwhile, members should:

Let us not take thought for our separate interests, but let us help one another.
(OSSTF Motto)

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