With bargaining, public campaigns, government submissions, legal challenges, the return to in-person programs at the provincial office and all of the other work that ETFO does in service to our members, the fall has been an extremely busy time.
Educators are at the heart of Ontario’s public education system and as you settle back into your classrooms for what everyone hopes will be a more typical year in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to start by saying thank you.
ETFO develops bargaining goals for each round of collective bargaining for its teacher, occasional teacher, Designated Early Childhood Educator, Education Support Personnel and Professional Support Personnel members.
The 2019-2020 school year was one for the history books. We started the year bargaining with a Conservative government determined to make massive cuts to public education and ended with a global pandemic and our members having to adjust to emergency distance learning over the course of just a couple of weeks.
A positive outcome of the current provincial government’s first year in office has been increased public engagement by ETFO members around education-related issues.
Kimiko Inouye provides an informative overview of what happens at the local and provincial bargaining tables.
Voice in conversation with chief negotiators Shelly Jan, Elizabeth Kettle and Diego Olmedo.
ETFO has a long history of advocating for and negotiating significant improvements to educator working conditions and student learning conditions. There’s no doubt that our collective efforts have helped make Ontario’s public education system one of the best in the world.