Continuing Education Instructors' Bargaining Unit Newsletter:

Volume 3, Issue 4: April 14, 2005

President's Message

Already it’s April. I must admit, I started in September with a particular enthusiasm: The Board had settled Pay Equity with us, and also invited us to negotiate a new contract. I thought all was rosy!!However, unfortunately, the pay equity deal turned out not to be quite what it seemed in the beginning, and bargaining has once again turned into a longer session than I initially expected.

As you all know, the bargaining table team has been visiting all of the work sites. Linda Huber and Carol Leslie have gone to some of the sites, and Monica Zacharias and I have gone to the others. It has been a truly rewarding experience for us. Not only are you, the membership, showing HUGE support for what the table team has been doing and pledging your continued support, but it also gave us the opportunity for smaller, more personal meetings. I am now much more confident in connecting a name with a face! We were welcomed at all worksites, and this experience has turned out to be exceedingly positive for all of us involved. I thank you all!!

We promise to keep you apprised of how the negotiations are progressing, whether by memo, phone or e-mail.

Speaking of e-mail. I have now amassed approximately 45 (out of 120) of your personal e-mail addresses. This makes it much easier for me to contact those people.

Please be aware that if an e-mail comes to you through your personal e-mail address, it will also be from my personal address. The message will show from “Kevin O’Brien”. Don’t be alarmed…..that would be my husband!!

If any of you would like to forward your e-mail address to me, you can e-mail me at: BarbOBrien@osstf11.com

Annual General Meeting

The CEI Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday May 30, at Wheable at 4:30pm.

This year is an election year, so I’m hoping that will spark some interest. Nomination forms will be faxed to all worksites the first week of May. They will have to be returned to the district office by May 20th, in order for Laurie to have enough time to make up ballots for us. Please be thinking about who you might wish to nominate for any of the positions.

We will be asking for volunteers to sit on the Mutual Concerns Committee, Staffing Committee, and Collective Bargaining Committee. We are also in need of another Health and Safety rep., and have never had anyone to sit on the Human Rights/Status of Woman committee. Please give these committees some thought.

There is also a Pay Equity Maintenance committee, comprised of Linda and me. This committee stays informed about what happens with the contract of our CUPE male comparitors. Pay Equity is a complicated procedure, and because Linda and I won’t be around forever, it’s time to begin getting someone else involved.

Mark the date on your calendar now, and plan to attend!!

Request for Hours Forms

By the time you receive this newsletter your “Request for Hours” forms will have been completed online, and submitted to the Board. This will be future practice with the Board. It is much easier for all concerned to just log onto their Portal, and take less than one minute to “fill in the blanks.” Too often, we will out papers, and then forget to hand them in!

There may be some leeway with the timelines this year, but in future, we have been advised that if your requests are not in by the final date, you will not be working. Please take heed!

Retirements

If you are planning to retire this year, your letter of retirement should be going to the Thames Valley Board very soon. OSSTF also requires a copy of the letter. This way, you are included in both the Board’s retirement festivities, and OSSTF’s retirement festivities.

Heritage Day

Once again, kudos to the ESL instructors on another successful Heritage Day. Because LBS had a PD day scheduled that day, I was unable to bring my class. Some of the LBS instructors from other sites RAVED about how impressive the displays were. Next year, Doug Pattyson and I have vowed to notify the press and invite them to be there.

Education Week

Education Week will take place from May 2 to May 6. If you have anything special planned, please let me know, so I can pass the word.

As a precursor to Education Week, District President Wendy Anes Hirschegger will be introducing the two District 11 provincial winners in the Marion Drysdale Contest at the April 26 board meeting at the Education Centre. One of those winners was Nancy Taylor, a student in CEI member Dianne Ward’s the Literacy and Basic Skills program at the Woodstock & District Developmental Program. This is the second provincial winner in a row from Dianne’s class, and the year before that she had a regional winner. Congratulations to Nancy and to Dianne Ward for this wonderful accomplishment. The CEI Bargaining Unit is proud of both of you!

Quotable Quotation
“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”…Malcolm Forbes

Local PD Session - BULLYING: Make It Stop!

Posters and brochures advertising the Bullying-Make It Stop workshops were distributed to worksites recently. If you haven’t seen the information yet, it can also be found, along with the registration form, on the district website at http://www.osstf11.com/bullyingworkshops.htm.

The workshop sessions will be held at the London Delta Armouries Hotel in downtown London on Thursday, May 5th, 2005. Space is limited and so members are asked to fax their completed registration forms to Laurie at District Office as soon as possible and to send a cheque for $8.00 to District Office by April 15 to secure their spot. A waiting list will be started once the seventy spots have been filled.

Our thanks go out to the members of the Educational Services and Human Rights/Status of Women Committees who have been involved in the planning of this event.

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

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