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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
President's Memo
January 24, 2005
Table of ContentsClick on any of the titles below to go directly to that article. |
Stay Informed |
Stay Informed
Reading communications from this office and the provincial office and
attending OSSTF meetings are always important, however they are all the more
important now as we move into a more intense negotiations situation across
the province.
It is critical that our members take responsibility for keeping themselves
apprised of developments in order to be able to make informed decisions
when/if we need to come to you for a strike vote.
On occasion, when we need to provide you with more confidential aspects of
these issues which cannot be put into print in order to maintain their
confidentiality, you will be asked to attend meeting(s) either at your
worksite or at a General Members’ meeting.
Recent Developments
At the Provincial Council meeting of January 21-22, this past weekend, every OSSTF bargaining unit which does not yet have a contract was put into “Provincial Responsibility for Negotiations”. The reason for this is to provide the means for greater coordination among bargaining units within and among districts across the province.
Local Implications
This affects three bargaining units in District 11–the Teachers’ BU, the
Occasional Teachers’ BU, and the Continuing Education Instructors’ BU. The
only BU not affected is the Professional Student Services Personnel BU
because its agreement is still in effect until August 31, 2005.
Being placed in Provincial Responsibility for Negotiations means that from
here on, each bargaining unit will have two provincial liaisons–one from the
provincial executive and one from the Protective Services Department–who
will be responsible for conducting negotiations. This doesn’t mean that
local priorities will be moved to the back burner; it just means that the
provincial liaisons will take a more prominent role.
We have very experienced and very capable provincial liaisons. Ken Coran is
our executive liaison. Our Protective Services department liaison is
officially Karl Dean. However, he is on sick leave at the moment and so the
Director of the Protective Services Department, Dale Leckie, is our “back
up”. District 11 is in VERY good hands.
While negotiations have been proceeding fairly well at the district level,
when the Minister of Education started to interfere with local bargaining as
was outlined in the Staffroom Rap of December 15, the situation became more
intense. At that point, communication became more frequent and more pointed.
You received the Staffroom Rap as well as two previous President’s Memos on
January 3 and 10.
As was the case two years ago, the difficulties that we will encounter have
more to do with the provincial government than with our local board and so
our response must be provincially coordinated.
Where do We Go From Here?
In some ways, things will continue as before. The Con.Ed. Instructors
will continue with the bargaining dates that they have. The Teachers/Con.Ed.
Teachers/ Occasional Teachers will continue with bargaining dates that they
have. However, eventually each of these groups may come to an impasse at
which point the next steps in the bargaining process will take place:
conciliation, strike votes, “no board” report, and perhaps sanctions, as is
the process according to the procedures as laid out by the Ontario Labour
Relations Act.
As your District leaders, we will keep you informed and, prior to any strike
vote, a General Members’ meeting will take place in order to give you more
specific and more detailed information about the status of negotiations.
In the coming weeks, we will be scheduling visits to branches and worksites
to bring more detailed information to you and to answer any questions that
you may have to the best our ability.