Education Matters Online
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Volume 1, Issue 1: April 7, 2003

District/Teachers' Bargaining Unit President: Don Rowdon

AMPA 2003 was a great experience. Thanks to all our delegates for forgoing the start of their spring break for four days in order to represent District 11. This was an election year for the Provincial Executive. After an emotional and well deserved tribute to Earl Manners, who is leaving after five years as our President, the assembly elected a new Executive. Rhonda Kimberly-Young was elected president, Sherry Rosner and Ken Coran were elected Vice-Presidents and Gerry Harrison, Jack Jones and Desiree Francis. Special congratulations to Ken Coran, former District 11 President.

The District employs four Federation Services Officers. In accordance with the District Constitution, the Officers are appointed for two year terms. The current term expires June 30, 2003. The positions were posted in the workplaces on March 19, 2003. Applications were due by April 3, 2003. For more information contact a workplace rep or call Don Rowdon at the District office. Job descriptions can be found on the website in the District Constitution.

Federation Services Officer and TBU Chief Negotiator: Bob Fisher

Got your attention? Was it the term "unusual" that got you? Wish you had been there to hear about it? Were you there and still don’t understand the unusual nature of it? Allow me to muse my way through it. Or should I say, allow me to e•muse myself. See if you can follow me.

Try this on for size. We still don’t have a ratified collective agreement for this year. Unusual, eh? I’ll come back to that.

So, the table team was having a bit of a time getting the Board to put the money on the table, and the class size thing was still a problem, and none of the workload items had been dealt with, and none of the Continuing Education Teachers’ language had been dealt with, so the membership gave us a 94.7% strike vote. Some have told me in the days since that they felt we’d lost an opportunity, and the membership wouldn’t give that strong a vote if we needed it this fall. But, actually, that 94.7% vote still stands. It is valid and usable until we get a ratified collective agreement, which I’ve already said we don’t have. Unusual, eh?

I’ve been saying for some time now, on a fairly consistent basis, that I have no intentions of being the first in the province to settle an agreement, since Thames Valley has been either first or second every year since amalgamation. So now people are giving me a hard time because we settled so soon. I could tell them we were fourth, but that’s pretty close to first anyway, right? But, as I said earlier, we don’t have a ratified agreement. We weren’t first. We weren’t fourth. In fact, we could end up being last to settle if everyone else gets done in reasonable time. Unusual, eh?

So what the heck does this all mean? It means this. I’ll try not to be repetitive. There are a number of items that we tentatively agreed to with the Board to this point in negotiations. After all, we’ve met about a dozen times or so. But since the current legislation requires all new agreements to extend to August 31, 2004 and the tory government will not release next year’s funding until sometime this spring, neither the Board or OSSTF is willing to reach a full agreement. Why would we without knowing about next year? But since funding for this year is known, and we were satisfied that we had reached a fair deal with the Board for this year’s compensation taking the current year’s funding into consideration, we brought you the pieces we had agreed to, agreed with the Board to extend the 2001-2002 agreement for a year and incorporated those changes into the extension.

But it’s not a collective agreement. It’s the same old one we already had. We’ve just agreed to ignore some of the old parts and use some new parts instead. Which means, technically we’re still in a strike position, although we’ve agreed not to invoke sanctions until after August 30, 2003. That 94.7% vote is still there. And there are still a lot of items we need to improve. So we’re still negotiating. Because we don’t have a collective agreement. So we weren’t first, or fourth, or anything. Because we haven’t settled yet. Unusual, eh?

I’m thinking that’s some pretty bizarre stuff, and probably valuable knowledge to have when you’re voting on the thing, eh? We tried to let everyone know. Held the meeting. Sent stuff to all of the branches. Asked Branch Presidents to explain it. They held meetings to tell members. Still, it’s pretty obvious that most people are essentially unaware of any of this. Did you know? How did you do it? How did you decide how to vote? Sure, it all worked out and everything. But ... did you know? Did you try to find out? Unusual, eh?

Federation Services Officer: Mary Lou Cunningham

Voting can only be done on the College web site www.oct.ca until April 14, 2003.

You will need your college registration number found by checking the Public Register on the OCT home page and your SIN number to enter the Member area to set up an account with a secure password. The web site will customize your ballot so that when you log in next time, the ballot will be ready. The sponsored candidate in the Southwest region is John Callaghan. The sponsored candidate for the English Public Secondary is Ted Coulson.

Click here for the complete list of OSSTF endorsed candidates.

Federation Services Officer: Don Edgar

Previously while on leave, OSSTF members had to continue their Board Health, Dental, and Life Insurance benefits for the duration of the leave and it became their responsibility to pay for 100% of those benefits. This was the only option. Now it is one option of three.

The three benefits options for members taking a leave now include:

1. Continue with all the same benefits which you had before the leave, and begin paying for 100% of those benefits for the duration of the leave.
2. Suspend any portion of your Health, Dental, or Life Insurance benefits which you wish during the leave (and begin paying for100% of the benefits which you retain for the duration of the leave).
3. Suspend all your benefits for the duration of the leave (i.e. Health, Dental, Life Insurance).

NOTE: OTIP’s Long Term Disability (LTD) coverage is not part of the above package. It stands on its own, and is not a board benefit; rather, it is a plan owned by the federation. To ensure that members have continued coverage for any lengthy illnesses, LTD remains mandatory during leaves, and OTIP bills directly during leaves for the premium (unless actually on LTD).

Federation Services Officer: Wendy Anes Hirschegger

The vast geographic region which comprises Thames Valley continues to make communication with members a challenge. Better means of communication, especially with our non-teacher bargaining unit members, must be developed.

Therefore we should:

 I believe that with the late February launch of the newly renovated website, and this launch of Education Matters Online, we are well on the way to fulfilling this mandate.

The Communications / Excellence in Education Committee provided several of the pieces for this debut edition of Education Matters Online. It is my hope that more members will become involved with providing articles and other material for future editions of this online magazine. It would be ideal to have a CEE representative in every school/branch and from all four Bargaining Units. 

We hope you enjoy the new website and Education Matters Online!

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

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