Saying Goodbye to ETFO (From the President)

This will  be  my  last  column  as  ETFO president. I have served on the ETFO provincial executive for nine years, the last five years as your president. It has been a privilege and a joy to watch this organization evolve into the accomplished union that it is today.

Over  these  nine  years we  have  faced  some daunting challenges, and  I  am  proud  that  in every instance the federation has prevailed.

The federation was formed in 1998, three years after  Mike  Harris and  the  Conservatives were elected.

Remember Accountability Yes: Recertification No? That slogan highlighted our opposition to the Professional Learning Program proposed by the Tories. This much-reviled initiative provided us with a great opportunity and taught us the most important lesson union members can ever learn: when we are united and believe in ourselves, there is no obstacle we cannot overcome. Today we are PLP free, and we all should feel very good about that.

The Tories also gave us the Ontario teacher qualifying test  and  the  teacher  performance appraisal. Happily today the OTQT is no more, and  new  more  functional  teacher  evaluation procedures are  replacing the  Tories’ vision of how  the  performance of  teachers  should  be appraised.

We have made progress in our fight against the Ontario College of Teachers and its misguided ways; however, the college’s report card still reads “Improvement needed.”

When it came to power in 2003, the Liberal government undertook to repair the damage inflicted by the Conservatives. It has taken a while for us to begin to trust the new way of doing business and for them to understand us. Few would disagree that our members and our students have benefited greatly from the change in government.

With Gerard Kennedy as  minister of  education, and  as  a  result of Campaign 200,  we created the  first-ever Provincial Framework, which brought us 200 minutes of preparation time, placed limits on supervision time, and established the  Provincial Stability Commission to  assist in implementing four-year collective agreements.

Campaign 200 was a defining moment. We took on a challenge that was controversial among our leadership and our members, and ultimately we achieved for every local what no local could have achieved on its own.

When we were challenged by our occasional teacher members to achieve similar gains for them, we came together, launched our campaign There Is No Substitute for a Substitute Teacher, and achieved our goals.

In 2006, in a precedent-setting move, the provincial government gave us  over  $8  million  to  provide  professional-growth programs for  our members. With that funding we are enhancing the highly rated professional development programs for which we are known.

Another provincial election and the next round of bargaining are on the horizon, creating new challenges. An inexplicable funding gap remains (see the General Secretary’s column), which devalues our work and short- changes our students. Meeting this challenge will require strong leadership and a strong sense of purpose, at both the local and provincial levels.

At ETFO we are leaders in  every way: in  our communications and political  action;  professional   development, equity,  social  justice,  and women’s programs; member services; member protection; and  collective bargaining.

I  am  proud  of  the  benchmarks that this organization has set. Our members have benefited from good  political leadership. We  have had effective and principled executive members and dedicated local leadership teams. Our skilled, knowledgeable, and committed staff have played a key role in making us the leading teacher union in Canada.

The  struggle to  improve the  personal and  professional lives of  our members is never-ending. The challenge and the reward are that we make a difference.