Occasional Teachers' Bargaining Unit Newsletter:

Volume 1, Issue 2 (Spring 2003)

Openers

This newsletter is coming to you at a time when a whole lot of things are going on. First, a reminder of this year’s Occasional Teacher Annual General Meeting. As posted on the District Website last week, this year’s AGM is:

Tuesday June 3, 2003 at 4:00pm at the OSSTF District Office.

Normally there would not be elections at this AGM, since last year’s elections were for the standard two year term. However, there are several vacancies on the executive, since only Carmen Richler-Bisson, appointed earlier this year, and I are serving on the executive. The open positions are Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer and CBC Chair. Please consider letting your name stand - our Executive meetings this year have been very lonely affairs! It would be particularly good to have someone interested in communications (newsletter and web-site updates) on the executive. Among the agenda items at the AGM will be bargaining priorities for the upcoming year. I hope you can attend.

Access and Support

As many of you with enquiries have found, we receive excellent support from our District Office staff. Don Edgar is the Federation Services Officer assigned to Occasional Teachers, but any of the FSO’s are pleased to help you. I can be reached via the District Office, and also at my home e-mail wilsonk@gtn.on.ca .

Collective Bargaining

We are currently in negotiations with the board for a revised extension of last year’s collective agreement. The District has not been negotiating new agreements, since they would have to be more than one year deals, and we want to keep options open for effective bargaining for the next Collective Agreement. For the extension, we are looking for wage increases at least as great as those achieved by other bargaining units, and retroactive to September, 2002. We are also looking for enhancements to benefits eligibility and enhanced access to contract job opportunities.

I hope that we will reach a tentative agreement soon. I will be informing you when negotiations proceed far enough for there to be an information meeting - perhaps at the AGM. Check the District website for updates.

Negotiations for next year’s new collective agreement will be very important for us, so I again urge you to be at the AGM to have your say on bargaining priorities. My recommendation is that we again try to co-negotiate our collective agreement with the Teachers' Bargaining Unit.

Issues and Initiatives

Don Edgar, Chief Negotiator Bob Fisher and I have had regular Labour-Management meetings with Human Resources personnel. We have been able to take care of many issues and concerns this way, and to make sure that steps are taken to pursue pressing issues and concerns, such as TVARRIS and mandatory criminal checks. One of these issues is stronger school supports.

Information packages for Occasional Teachers, which is by far the strongest issue identified by the response form returns from the last newsletter. We are in the process of setting up an OSSTF - School administrators - Human Resource Services committee to nail this down. Stay tuned.

TVARRIS implementation seems to be progressing fairly well, with some bumps. It has proven to be a very good way for us to ensure that equity and fairness are evident in OT job opportunities and placements.

Elections...

I am composing this newsletter in the Campaign Office of Irene Mathyssen, NDP candidate in London-Fanshawe, and English teacher at Banting SS. I have taken on the responsibility to be Irene’s Campaign Manager, and have found that there are indeed jobs as busy and multifaceted as a teacher’s. I have taken on this responsibility because of my utter determination to oust this repressive Tory regime and their vicious attacks on education and public services. As campaign manager, I can see very clearly exactly what is needed to elect an education-friendly government. Campaigns run on donations and volunteers.

I hope you will do your part in this election. A donation of $100 to the candidate of your choice really only costs you $25, because of the tax deduction you are given. I am absolutely certain that we can win London-Fanshawe if we have enough canvassers. It takes about 6 hours to canvas a poll - and it can be done with a friend, and at a time convenient to you. Imagine - 6 hours of your time, to play a significant role in ridding the province of Eves, Witmer and the whole cabal!

We have three teacher candidates in this area; Irene Mathyssen (NDP) in London-Fanshawe, Brian Brown (Liberal) in Oxford and Clarke Road English teacher Patti Dalton (NDP) in London West. Provincial OSSTF has identified the following candidates/campaigns as local priorities for OSSTF support:

If you want more information about how you can do your part to re-establish a strong education system, and respect for the rights and working conditions of teachers, call the District Office. I would be happy to give you a specific idea of how easy it is to provide critically-needed help in this vitally important election campaign for the candidate and party of your choice.

To give you an idea of how critical this election is, let me quote from a letter sent out to affiliated unions by Rick Witherspoon, President of the London and District Labour Council:

"The upcoming provincial election is absolutely critical for Organized Labour, as critical as any challenge our movement has ever faced. We simply must be an effective force in this election - or face a bleak, uncertain future with even more Tory attacks on our pensions, on our health and safety, on our salaries and working conditions, on our most basic union rights. Make no mistake, the very existence of organized labour as we know it is on the line....

This is not a routine appeal for support - but rather a call for immediate mobilization in response to the crisis the Tories have created for organized Labour. When you think of four more years of Tory devastation - I hope you’ll see that our choice is critical and is absolutely clear. "

An editorial from the May 3, 2003 Toronto Star detailed the bleak future for Toronto (and, by extension, all Ontario) schools under more scorched-earth Tory rule. I think you can imagine the opportunities, salaries and working conditions for Occasional Teachers in an on-going Tory dystopia.

Fill in the Election Volunteer form we are using for emergency mobilization of members in schools and other work sites when this election is called. Imagine all Occasional Teachers being in a room together. Imagine that we committing together, as all of OSSTF did with so much bravery, principle and solidarity in the 1997 two-week political protest. The question now, as then, is not whether we will step up to the challenge, but rather exactly and specifically what we will all do in this emergency. Please carefully review the commitment form. Please decide what you will do for the candidate/campaign of your choice, and either contact them directly, or fax the form to the District Office or call there.

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

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