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Volume 3, Issue 1: November 10, 2004

Federation Services Officer: Mary Lou Cunningham

Human Rights and Status of Women Committee News

The Human Rights Committee met on Wednesday October 6 at Clarke Rd S.S.

December 6, 2004 will be the 15th Anniversary of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada.
Preparations are underway for the December 6th White Ribbon Campaign. All workplace representatives and Bargaining unit representatives received information with three pages of suggested activities and instructions at their meeting September 22, 2004. White ribbon packages will be prepared by the DC classes at Clarke Road and then distributed at the November 24 TBU meeting. The ribbons are sold at our worksites during the first week of December.
This fundraising campaign is a major initiative of OSSTF District 11.

Donations should be forwarded to the District Office for donations to the four area Abused Women’s Associations. Schools that choose to donate directly to their community women’s organization are requested to inform the District Office of the donation amount.

The "Flying above the Glass Ceiling" OSSTF Provincial Status of Women Conference took place on October 22-23, 2004, in Toronto. Two District 11 delegates, Evelyn Daley (Ingersoll) and Colleen Canon (Banting) attended this conference and will report to the next Human Rights meeting.

Provincial Updates:
*A financial contribution of $2000 was made to the CUT-Colombia’s Political Work and Labour Solidarity week in Columbia. The campaign consists of national and regional workshops to educate and mobilize the membership, radio, TV and media ads, posters and other types of publicity. CUT is playing a strategic role in the fight back against the repressive anti-social policies of the Uribe government.
*Provincial OSSTF has contributed $2000. to the ongoing work of the Maquila Solidarity Network in their ongoing program of education, research and advocacy on sweatshop issues and labour rights in the global garment industry. They continue to pressure textile manufacturers to follow basic codes and fair labour practices. During the Olympics, they ran a concerted campaign targeting Roots stores. Several media articles were distributed.
*Provincial OSSTF has contributed $2,500. to support the Canadian Labour of Congress’s relief efforts for hurricane victims in the Caribbean.
*Provincial OSSTF has contributed $2000. to Oxfam to aid in their efforts to assist the Sudanese people in the Darfur region.

Federation Services Officer and TBU Chief Negotiator: John Bernans

Deep Thoughts of a New Chief Negotiator

As we move forward into this round of negotiations I naturally compare the conditions to previous years. We are dealing with a new government with a different approach to education but many of the parameters that restrict the outcome of bargaining remain the same.

We continue to operate within the confines of the funding formula. The Liberals have not really changed anything about the way schools are funded. We still have the “one size fits all” approach. We continue to deal with the unique problems posed by rural and urban schools within the same board. In the past (hereinafter referred to as “The Good Old Days”) local school boards could raise taxes to meet the needs of their schools. We all know our small rural schools are more than just places where adolescents are educated. These schools are part of the heart of the community and in The Good Old Days local officials could go to local taxpayers and ask if keeping that school open was worth paying higher taxes. While the Liberals placed a moratorium on closing schools the fundamental problem of centralized funding remains.

The Rozanski report came out during the last round of bargaining and I had great hopes that progress would be made. Here was a report commissioned by the Conservative government that vindicated our position that the formula had to be updated. This was real ammunition. The Conservatives even started to follow some of the recommendations in the report. The good times continued to roll as we got a new government and the “Education Premier”. Well, the Liberals seem to have their own ideas about how education should be improved. Unfortunately, I don’t think they read the Rozanski report as they put money into education but not in the places the report said it should go. The Liberal funding goes into new programmes and to reducing class sizes in the early years. Excellent ideas but kind of like adding a swimming pool and hot tub to your house when you have a hole in the roof and the hydro is about to be turned off because you can’t pay your bills.

So at the moment we are stuck with this fixed pot of money determined by a funding formula that is years out of date. From that pot we must negotiate salary, benefits and working conditions. Any improvement in one area must be balanced by the others. Add to this the increasing costs of benefits and you quickly see how the space to move within the pot seems to be getting smaller. I seem to be left stirring the pot and trying not to get burned.

Federation Services Officer: Nancy McDougall

Marion Drysdale Awards

The Marion Drysdale Award, sponsored annually by OSSTF, is a writing and creative arts contest which showcases the talent that abounds in our public secondary schools. This year’s topic for the contest is Perspectives. Provincial winners will receive a prize of $300 and be honoured at the Annual Meeting of the Provincial Assembly (AMPA) in Toronto in March, 2005. District 11's Communications and Excellence in Education Committee is responsible for judging the District level entries of the annual Marion Drysdale Awards contest and for presenting medallions to school level winners and trophies to District level winners. Schools are asked to submit their school entries to the District Office by November 19, 2004.

Bishop Townshend Award of Educator Excellence

The Bishop Townshend Award will be the first OSSTF District 11 Award presented in the 2004-2005 school year and will be held on Wednesday February 23, 2005 at the Grosvenor Club in London. The Award is jointly sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of Huron, OSSTF District 11 and the Thames Valley District School Board. The criteria for selection of the recipients of this award is derived from Bishop Townshend’s philosophy of education. He believed that students must receive education in the spiritual, physical, intellectual and social realms if they are to live abundant lives, and that educational workers who help students develop in such a well-rounded fashion would also demonstrate excellence in the four areas of spiritual, physical, intellectual and social development.

Bishop Townshend Award packages were recently distributed to Branch and Bargaining Unit Presidents. Branches and bargaining units are each asked to select a nominee and to provide a write-up. Any individual or groups of individuals may submit an initial nomination. Each Branch or Bargaining Unit will need to establish a selection panel to make final nominee selection (one per branch or bargaining unit). Please forward the name of the branch or bargaining unit nominee along with the one page typed write-up no later than Monday, December 13, 2004 to either Val Cavalini (Fax: 452-2879) or Nancy McDougall (Fax: 659-2421).

Other Award Dates

E.C. McTavish Award - Thursday April 28, 2005 at Ross Secondary School.
Citizenship Awards - June 1, 2005 at Thames Secondary School.

Educational Services Committee

Twenty-four District 11 members will be attending the Stars and Beyond Conference to be held in Toronto November 11-13, 2004. District 11 is proud to have some members presenting at this conference including Dr. Marlies Suderman, Maureen Weller and Ray Hughes.

The Educational Services Committee (ESC) has determined that a total of $5,500.00 of its budget of $7000.00 will be allocated to individuals this year for Professional Development. The application form has been minimally revised from last year with the criteria and the process for requests clearly stated on the form. Request for PD Funding Assistance forms are available from Branch or Bargaining Unit Presidents, Educational Services Representatives or at the District 11 website.

Members should fax completed funding application forms to the District Office c/o Laurie Lafraniere. They will be date and time stamped and then considered at the next scheduled ESC meeting.

The committee has discussed thoroughly the necessity of providing funding equitably to as many workplaces and Bargaining Units as possible. Consequently, they have decided that when more than two members per branch or bargaining unit apply for funding for the same conference no more than a maximum of $250.00 for that conference may be considered for that branch or bargaining unit. In other words, if two members attend the same conference from the same school and funding is approved, each would receive a maximum of $125.00, but if three members applied each would receive a third of $250.00 or $83.88 each, etc.

Discussions are underway for a local professional development session similar in format to the School Law workshop sponsored last year by the committee. The session will most likely be scheduled for late March or early April. More information will follow.

Active Retired Members (ARM)

The Annual General Meeting of District 11's ARM Chapter will be held at Hook’s Restaurant at 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday, November 9th, 2004. The first issue of AfterWords, the ARM Newsletter, has recently been mailed to ARM members along with their membership cards.

Accessibility Work Group

The Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001 (ODA) requires each school board to prepare an annual Accessibility Plan. The plan describes the accessibility measures that the Thames Valley District School Board has taken in the past and the measures that they will take during the coming school year. Last year the Accessibility Working Group identified barriers in six categories for people with disabilities and made recommendations for strategies for removing and preventing these barriers.

Federation Services Officer: Dave Russell

Political Action Committee

The Political Action Committee held its first meeting on Wed. October 13, 2004 at Westminster S.S.

At the OSSTF Summer Leadership Conference, at the end of August, the Provincial Executive released the Ontario Government's first report card as well as the Negotiating Lobby Priorities for the upcoming year. Each District has been asked to lobby their MPPs on the issues of :

a) Stability Funding and Funding for Student Success,
b) Restoring Adequate Support Staff in schools and
c) Legislative Restrictions (Regulation 1on Collective Bargaining,
d) Special Education funding for Individual Students.

The Political Action Committee will focus on this effort and will report responses from MPPs to our District President and Chief Negotiator to carry forward to the provincial level. Classroom teachers are encouraged to meet with their MPP and emphasize the four Lobbying points. Branch Presidents have copies of lobbying sheets in Sept. section of their TBU binder.
Lobbying has occurred with Chris Bentley, Minister of Labour (Oct. 15), Kahlil Ramal (Oct.22), Deb Matthews (Nov.8) and Steve Peters (Nov. 9).

It was brought to the Committee’s attention that the legislation (Bill 82) to cancel PLPs is currently in the process of being passed, that the OSSLT for 2005 will be reduced in time to 2.5 hours from its current 5 hours and the Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test has been cancelled.

The London Labour Council has proudly announced their new President, Joe Wilson. Congratulations of the OSSTF PAC committee are extended to Joe and we wish him the best of luck and success in this important endeavour.

Irene Mathyssen brought to the Committee’s attention the fact that there will be District 11 members attending the NDP Biennial Convention on November 19 - 21, 2004.

The next meeting will be held on TUESDAY NOVEMBER 23RD at 4:15 p.m. at Westminster S.S. in Room 121.

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

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