A severe budget cirsis and a president bent on turning public education on its head have given Republican-led states in the United States a convenient excuse to attack union rights, public education and teachers.
Critics, especially those on the right, take pride in denigrating public education. They want us to believe that our schools – and by implication, you, our members – are failing our children.
Early in my teaching career I came to understand the extent to which public education is intricately entwined with politics.
It is fitting, in ETFO’s 10th anniversary year, that we celebrate its successes. However, we must also look, acknowledge and reflect on the challenges that bind the 155,000 members of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF). One of these is the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT).
Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, believes that the programs and services unions provide in addition to collective bargaining are the heart and soul of the union movement.
In 1998, delegates to the first ETFO annual meeting unanimously passed the following motion: That the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario work to restore free and full collective bargaining rights to teachers and education workers.
Many ETFO members have fond memories of the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) and the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation (OPSTF), the two organizations that came together in 1998 to create ETFO.
This year ETFO celebrates its 10th anniversary. an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how far we have come since this federation was founded.
Since ETFO’s inception in 1998, strong collective bargaining has worked to equalize compensation and working conditions for teacher and occasional teacher members across the province.
As we go to press the provincial election has just concluded. The outcome is good news for public education.