Wednesday,
November 28, 2012
Hon.
Kathleen O. Wynne
Ontario
Liberal MPP, Don Valley West
Suite 101,
795 Eglinton Avenue East
Toronto,
Ontario M4G 4E4
Re: Protest against Bill 115
To Hon.
Kathleen O. Wynne:
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my letter of
October 3, 2012 regarding Bill 115. I’d
also like to think that you appreciate my dedication to my profession. I take my teaching very seriously and want
non-teachers to appreciate what we have to offer our students in Ontario’s
public high schools.
OSSTF and its members are well aware of the agreement
reached between OECTA (the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association) and
the government, but, as OSSTF (the Ontario Secondary School Teachers
Federation), our own federation, has pointed out, this agreement was not
satisfactory to us. In fact, months
before this, OSSTF proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in cost cuts to the
government, but these cuts were not given any consideration and, in fact, were
rejected outright. The idea of forcing
local school boards to agree to the government’s pre-determined educational
funding goals (via Bill 115) is not what we would consider a good way to
negotiate a new contract with OSSTF’s teacher members.
While a wage freeze over a two-year period might seem like a
good idea to both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, it might have
been more acceptable if it had been applied across the entire public sector,
not just the educational sector. You’ve
made it clear in your letter that part of Bill 115 was meant to freeze the
wages of all educational workers for two years.
Nevertheless, we are accepting this wage freeze, as unfair as it
is. What we really think is unfair is
the removal of our right to collectively bargain our teacher contracts, now and
into the future.
I’d like to
quote an excerpt from the OSSTF magazine called “Education Forum”. The source article is called “Workers’ Rights
at Risk”, by Gary Fenn. Here is the
excerpt: “Bill 115 has very little to do
with putting students first [despite its name] and has everything to do with
making the educational workers of Ontario pay for a recession they did not cause. It is about making educational workers pay
for the cuts to corporate taxes that have not stimulated the economy. And now, it is about taking away the
constitutionally protected right to free collective bargaining……McGuinty won
the support of Progressive Conservative MPPs and their leader, Tim Hudak, to
pass this legislation. The Premier has
mused about going after other public-sector workers in Ontario, including
doctors, nurses and firefighters. One
can conclude that if McGuinty and Hudak can do this to educational workers,
they can do it to any worker. All
workers should be very afraid of this precedent.”
We want you
and the Liberal Party to know that we, as teachers, are intent on fighting for
our bargaining rights as long as we need to in order to make our point and
further our cause. To this end, we have
conducted some peaceful demonstrations in front of various MPPs’ offices in
Scarborough and elsewhere in the GTA and we will continue to do so into the
future. I, myself, have personally taken
on the task of writing to every MPP in the province. We have also instituted a strike job action
to assert our collective displeasure with this government’s extremely controversial
legislation.
I’d like to thank you, Ms. Wynne, again for taking the time
to reply to my letter. I can appreciate
the implementation of Bill 115 only for the purpose of “getting the
province’s fiscal house in order”.
However, the method that the government has chosen to achieve this
objective is not anywhere near acceptable to OSSTF and its members. We have to fight this law because of
its potential drastic effects on other public-sector groups in Ontario and to
protect our own rights to do what OSSTF has been doing so well for its teacher
members over the last several years – negotiating a collective agreement that
works for its members and yet, fulfills the government’s requirements.
Yours truly,
"Shirley Underfire"
Teacher, TDSB
Teacher, TDSB
