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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
News
Volume 2, Issue 5: June 14, 2004
District Priorities for 2004-2005
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The 2004-2005 District Priorities, derived from the 2004-2005 Provincial Priorities and Programs, were passed at the District Annual Meeting on May 27, 2004.
PRIORITY #1: EDUCATION WATCH: Monitoring the New Government
The number one priority for 2003-2004 was to elect a new provincial government. That initiative was, for the most part, a resounding success. The anti-teacher, anti-public-education tory regime has been relegated to the back benches and the Liberals has assumed the governance of the province.
The Liberals acted immediately to start healing the damage the tories had done to public education. They repealed the Private School Tax Credit and the Seniors’ Education Tax Credit. They have sent the tory-appointed supervisors to the Toronto, Ottawa-Carleton and Hamilton-Wentworth school boards packing. Just before Christmas, Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy wrote to all of the teachers in Ontario and to the College of Teachers to announce that the PLP would be scrapped.
On the other hand, saddled with a deficit beyond their wildest nightmares, the Liberal government has not been able to move as quickly on other, more costly, parts of their education platform. Having put in place a more education-friendly government, we now must concentrate on ensuring that public education issues remain in the forefront of the public’s mind. The government must not be allowed to relegate things like implementing the Rozanski recommendations, restoring "6 of 8" workload provisions, restoring funding to adult education, and restructuring the Ontario College of Teachers to the back burner.
Therefore, as a union and as public educators, we must:
- actively promote the OSSTF Student Success Plan;
- continue to bring these issues to the attention of the public by means of letters to the editor;
- actively lobby our MPPs and trustees on these issues.
PRIORITY #2: MEMBER OUTREACH
The "Political Protest" of October 27-November 7, 1997 occurred only six and a half years ago. The amalgamation of school boards occurred shortly after that. Yet, in that time period, our membership has changed dramatically. Consider these facts:
 | The Teachers’ Bargaining Unit Seniority List has 1821 names on it, but 663 of those Teachers were hired after amalgamation; this comprises 36.4% of the TBU membership; |
| Prior to amalgamation, only the London Continuing Education Instructors were OSSTF members; after amalgamation, a representation vote brought in CEI members from Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex. |
| Prior to amalgamation, only Elgin, Oxford and Middlesex Professional Student Services Personnel were OSSTF members; after amalgamation, a representation vote brought in the London PSSP members. |
In other words, a significantly large percentage of our members have been OSSTF members for less than 7 years, and therefore did not have the shared experience and bonding that the Political Protest fostered.
The provincial "Action Plan" for 2004-2005, puts the situation this way: "As the demographics of our membership change, so too does the participation level and services that are required. The inclusion of new members into OSSTF locally and provincially has been and continues to be an on-going challenge and priority for OSSTF. It is essential that we create a sense of Federation identity and community that embraces our newest members. The members must see and accept OSSTF as a full service union for all educational workers."
Therefore, we must:
- actively find and implement ways to raise the awareness of all of our members, but especially our newer ones, about the many services that OSSTF provides to them;
- actively encourage participation in union initiatives and committees by our newer members.