Bar­gain­ing New Col­lec­tive Agreements

Sam Ham­mond — ETFO Pres­i­dent

For ETFO the Octo­ber provin­cial elec­tion was a suc­cess story: we worked hard to ensure the elec­tion of a major­ity of education-friendly can­di­dates and that goal was accom­plished with the elec­tion of 53 Lib­er­als and 17 New Democrats.

Our suc­cess took all of us work­ing together. The staff and exec­u­tive in the provin­cial office, each of you and your local lead­er­ship teams, and a strong local-provincial part­ner­ship fully ded­i­cated to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence for our mem­bers. We will need to sus­tain that col­lab­o­ra­tion as we now shift our focus to col­lec­tive bargaining.

In addi­tion to our elec­tion activ­i­ties, through­out the past year we were work­ing on a col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing strategy.

Start­ing last win­ter we asked mem­bers for their bar­gain­ing pri­or­i­ties. Provin­cial staff col­lated and ana­lyzed responses to the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing sur­vey and devel­oped bar­gain­ing goals. These were approved by local pres­i­dents at the Octo­ber meet­ing of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Coun­cil. You can see them in full in the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing col­umn on page 7.

We know that of all the teacher fed­er­a­tions in the province we have the biggest chal­lenge head­ing into this round of negotiations.

We fully antic­i­pate that, as was the case in 2004 and 2008, we will once again be approached to engage in a provin­cial bar­gain­ing process. Local pres­i­dents have received the prin­ci­ples that will guide our par­tic­i­pa­tion and we will make every effort to ensure that any provin­cial process adheres to them. As well, if a provin­cial table agree­ment is reached it will be sub­ject to an all-member vote.

Suc­cess in the next round of bar­gain­ing will require the gov­ern­ment to com­mit addi­tional finan­cial resources in a dif­fi­cult econ­omy.  In the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate, it will be a chal­lenge to fore­stall cuts to pub­lic edu­ca­tion. The  ETFO exec­u­tive has approved a pub­lic rela­tions cam­paign which will aim to build pub­lic sup­port for con­tin­ued invest­ment in education.

We have also begun col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing edu­ca­tion. We have devel­oped a com­pre­hen­sive train­ing pro­gram for local lead­ers and bar­gain­ers to enhance our capac­ity to bar­gain strong col­lec­tive agree­ments. Mem­ber edu­ca­tion will focus on under­lin­ing the impor­tance of your col­lec­tive agree­ments and the impor­tance of sol­i­dar­ity. We hope you will become involved in the bar­gain­ing process and sup­port your bar­gain­ing team.

In bar­gain­ing there are two options. One is to let oth­ers take charge. The other – and for us the only option – is to work together to con­trol the future. From this moment for­ward we must be united in fac­ing the chal­lenges that lie ahead.

We are fac­ing the biggest bar­gain­ing chal­lenge that we have ever taken on. Bar­gain­ing only suc­ceeds when mem­bers are engaged, fully informed, and per­son­ally involved in the process.

You are the key to suc­cess­ful nego­ti­a­tions. With your sup­port and sol­i­dar­ity there is noth­ing that we can­not achieve.