Collective Bargaining Negotiations Update

Negotiations: what’s going on now?

Our collective agreement expires on August 31, 2012, and we are preparing to negotiate a new one. ETT held three training sessions for school stewards in the fall of 2011. ETT members have answered an online survey identifying their priorities for this round of bargaining, and the ETT Collective Bargaining Committee (CBC) is now working on developing the preliminary submission (the list of improvements we want to make to the collective agreement). ETT members will have an opportunity to vote to approve the preliminary submission in April. NB: if you missed the deadline for completing the online survey, you can still send an email identifying your priorities to John Smith (jsmith@ett.on.ca)!

Executive Officers are currently visiting schools regarding negotiations; contact your Executive Officer for a visit to your school.

What to expect:

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is providing members across the province with extensive training in preparation for negotiations. Two provincial conferences are being held for local leaders this year, followed by training for school stewards. Three steward training sessions will be held, on March 26, March 27, and April 5.

As in the last two rounds, there is a provincially-coordinated bargaining strategy for ETFO members. All ETFO locals, including ETT, will give notice to bargain with their school boards by the beginning of June, and we expect to engage in meaningful negotiations that month. Any collective action we need to take to achieve our bargaining goals would most likely begin in the fall of 2012 with a strike vote.

Provincial negotiations

It is important to bear in mind that our collective agreements may be negotiated at both the provincial and the local levels. In the last two rounds of bargaining, representatives of the provincial teacher unions, the Ministry of Education, and school board trustees met and formed what was known as the Provincial Discussion Table (PDT), to negotiate major monetary issues (including salary, benefits, preparation time, and supervision time). We achieved significant gains in these negotiations. Similar provincial negotiations may take place in the upcoming round, but no talks are being held at this time. ETFO is committed to holding a province-wide, all-member vote should a PDT agreement be reached. Local negotiations are just as important as the provincial ones, as they deal with issues of rights and practices which are non-monetary but have a huge influence over the quality of our members’ working lives and of the education we can provide our students.

What do we want?

Local goals are being developed according to the results of your local survey. The ETFO Executive and Representative Council have approved the following provincial bargaining goals for 2012:

• To eliminate the existing 2% salary differential
• To negotiate a real salary increase
• To negotiate maximum class sizes in all grades and programs
• To negotiate improved preparation time
• To negotiate limits of teacher workload
• To negotiate benefit improvements
• To negotiate improved pregnancy and parental entitlements
• To negotiate language that ensures that vice principals and principals do not engage in bargaining unit work
• To negotiate experience credit to include all occasional teacher work.

Where do we go for information?

The ETT website, in addition to timely information about local events and issues, offers a secure area for members with discussion forums. A Negotiations Portal is planned. You can sign up to receive the ETT listserv, and to follow ETT on twitter (@ElemTeachers), Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and via RSS feed.

Through the ETFO website, you can access information about negotiations across the province (also available directly at controlyourfuture.ca, where you can download ETFO’s negotiations app). You can sign up to receive ETFO’s e-newsletter @ETFO, and/or to follow ETFO on Twitter (@ETFONews), Facebook, YouYube, and via RSS feed.