The minority government at Queen’s Park means Ontario could face an election this school year. ETFO members may still harbour strong feelings about the Liberal government’s attack on collective bargaining rights and the failure of anyone in the legislature to vigorously defend them, but we should not overlook the bigger threat to the public sector and to unions: the agenda of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
As locals completed filing their no board reports, each moved into a legal strike position.
Bill 115 is the legislation that was passed by the Liberal government to legislate ETFO collective agreements and those of other education unions.
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.
The importance of the October provincial election and bargaining new collective agreements were President Sam Hammond's focus in his opening address to some 600 annual meeting delegates.
Quick quiz – how long is your collective agreement? 25