The Rumour Mill (Collective Bargaining)

ETFO has  been  much  in the  news  in the  past  several  months.  there have  been  dire warnings  of imminent  strikes,  looming deadlines, and other  seemingly  apocalyptic  scenarios. But like  a giant game  of “rumour,”  some  of what has  been  reported  and repeated  has  suffered in the  retelling.

Myth: Elementary teachers are poised to go on strike.

Actually, elementary teachers are engaged in a normal collective bargaining process, one they are legally obliged to participate in. Under Section 17 of the Labour Relations Act, the parties to negotiations are bound to “bargain in good faith and make every reasonable effort to make a collective agreement.” Bargaining  is   proceeding  in   occasional teacher,  teacher,  and  educational  and  professional  support  personnel  (ESP/PSP)  bargaining units across the province. All  agreements, with the exception of two ESP/PSP agreements, expired on August 31. And even though it is extremely rare for new collective agreements to be signed before the expiry date, there has been a flurry of misinformation around this point this fall. For  the  record,  ETFO  bargains for  settlements,  not  for  strikes.  When  and  if  strikes happen, they do  not  happen  overnight. It  is important to let the normal bargaining process unfold.

Myth: The other Ontario teacher federations have signed provincial framework agreements. If theframeworks were good enough for them, they should be good enough for ETFO.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association  (OECTA),  the  Association des  enseignantes  et  des  enseignants  franco-ontariens (AEFO)  and  the  Ontario  Secondary  School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have  long traditions of representing their members well. But their  histories,  collective  agreements,  membership  composition, and the needs of  their members are very different from ETFO’s. One framework simply does  not  fit all. For ETFO, signing a similar agreement would have been detrimental  to  members’  existing  rights.  In addition, the agreed-to framework agreements do not begin to seriously address the funding shortfall in elementary education. ETFO must chart its own course.

Myth: ETFO came up with the $711 “gap”number on its own.

This number comes from the Ministry of Education. Last year ETFO asked the ministry what the funding gap  was between elementary and secondary students. The ministry replied that it was $711, and explained how  this  number was derived. The ministry’s response is in writing. It is on official letterhead. It is signed. It is dated. The  gap  in  funding  between  the  elementary  and  secondary  panels  has  been  a  well-documented fact for decades. To its credit, the current government has reduced the size of the gap over the past few years.

Myth: The current period of economic uncertainty is the wrong time to increase education funding.

The  downturn  in  the  economy  is  very  real. Recently, the provincial government announced that the economy is expected to grow by just 0.1 percent in 2008. The impacts of this, particularly with respect to job loss, are very significant. What we cannot predict, of course, is how long this situation will last, and how severe it might become.

Consider, however, that in both the long and the short terms, investing in vital areas of the public sector is never a bad fiscal decision. This precept holds true in good times and in bad. Recently,  the  provincial  government  reached an agreement with the province’s doctors. That deal, which will cost approximately $1 billion over its four-year term, includes a 12.25 percent salary increase and hundreds of millions in new program funding. It is a good long-term investment – a healthier  population means a more productive workforce.

Our  collective  prosperity  also  hinges,  to a  degree  unprecedented  in  our  history,  on strengthening  the  knowledge-based  economy. Today, an educated, skilled workforce is what gives a nation its competitive edge. As we know, education begins at the beginning, with young students,  by  building  a  firm  base  for  their future learning.

ETFO has always understood that achieving substantive change in our collective agreements is a process, not a one-time  event. The union has always been willing to work with the government and school boards to find creative ways to eliminate funding inequities over time and make elementary education all that it can be.

Myth: It is really just about salary.

ETFO has tabled a salary increase in this round of bargaining – that is what unions do, and no educator should ever be  ashamed of wanting to be paid well. But salary is not the focus in this round of bargaining. Teachers’ working conditions  have been the centrepiece from day one. Those who visit the ETFO website (etfo.ca) and who survey the documents and videos that deal with bargaining and the gap will find numerous references to workload, class size, preparation time,  teaching time, student assessment, marking, supervision time, and specialist teachers. They will not find much about salary.

Myth: Raising the “gap” issue denigrates secondary teachers.

The gap in funding between the amount of money allocated to elementary students and that provided for secondary  students is real and well documented (see below). It translates into inferior working conditions for elementary teachers and inferior learning conditions for their students.

Secondary teachers do a tremendous job of educating Ontario’s young people – they need, and deserve, the best possible  working conditions. And so do elementary teachers. The historical roots of the gap are both complex and long-standing. One  factor is that the labour of educators who work with young children – who are mostly women – has always been undervalued. This discrimination goes back a century or more. But for elementary teachers to point out this glaringly obvious fact is not to denigrate the work of their secondary colleagues. On the contrary – all teachers  deserve  the  resources  and  working  conditions  necessary to ensure student success.

No doubt, rumours and misinformation will continue to spread during this round of negotiations. That, too, is a normal part of the process. But, as the bargaining bulletins you have been receiving state frequently, don’t listen to rumours.