President's Memo

February 2, 2005

Negotiations Road Show

At the bottom of this newsletter, you will find the schedule for the “Negotiations Road Show”.

We gathered information from the Branch Presidents and Workplace Representatives as to the start/end/lunch times for each site and what dates to avoid. We were able to take all of that into account, as well as work around the meetings and commitments that the District Office staff already had, in order to come up with the schedule you see there. Because we needed to fit in all of the sites in as short a time possible, it was necessary to schedule many of the meetings before school or at lunch.

It is critical that members take responsibility for staying informed and so we request that each member make every effort to attend the “Road Show” at their site. If it is impossible to attend the meeting scheduled for the date/time for your branch or worksite, you are welcome to attend one of the sessions at another site. Occasional Teachers may attend a session at any site they wish.

At the meeting, one or two of us from the District Office will bring you as much up-to-date information as we have available to us, as well as specific information for the Branch/Workplace Reps regarding information with which they will need to familiarize themselves with as we get closer to a possible sanctions situation. We will answer as many questions as we can fit into the time available.

If you have been following the news, you will know that we aren’t the only education union in this position. ETFO bargaining units around the province have been taking their strike votes since the first week in January and have been getting very strong support from their members. The ETFO-Thames Valley strike vote was 96%. We may well be looking to our members for similar if not stronger support in the near future.

Once again, we will give you as much information as we can in writing; click here for all previous President’s Memos.

However, some information may well need to be confidential to members only and so it will be presented verbally and not distributed in writing or posted on the website. In those cases, you will be called to meetings, as is the case with the “Road Show,” or updated at your regular Branch meetings.

When we get to the point where we need to come to you for a strike vote, we will first call a General Members’ Meeting to give you information and to take your questions.

While the “Road Show” is going on, you also need to be aware of the fact that, at any given time, all five of us might be away at branches/worksites and therefore unable to take your calls or respond to your emails on the spot or as quickly as we normally can. In cases of emergency, Laurie will be able to contact us by cell phone.

Retirement Seminars Reminder

There are two Retirement Seminars sponsored by OSSTF coming up soon.

The one for members of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) is on February 8 from 4:30 - 6:30 pm at Saunders.

The one for members of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is on February 17 from 4:30 - 6:30 pm at the District Office.

To register for either one of those, please contact Laurie at the District Office.

The board’s retirement seminar for members of both OTPP and OMERS is scheduled for March 23 from 7-10 pm at the board office. Register on the Employee Portal.

Negotiations Road Show Schedule

Click here for previous issues of President's Memos

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

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