Monday October 29,
2012
Mr. Frank Klees
Ontario PC MPP,
Newmarket—Aurora
Suite 201, Hunters
Gate Plaza, 14845 Yonge Street
Aurora, Ontario L4G
6H8
Re: Protest against Bill 115
To Mr. Frank Klees:
Thank you for taking the time to reply to
my letter of October 9, 2012 regarding Bill 115. I’d also like to thank you for expressing
your appreciation of my dedication to my profession. I take my teaching very seriously and would
appreciate it if non-teachers would appreciate what we have to offer our
students.
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 were rejected
outright. It makes me think that the
government had every intention of passing Bill 115 even before negotiations
could get underway with OSSTF.
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 educational workers.
You’ve made it clear in your letter that the Progressive Conservatives
supported this part of Bill 115 regarding educational workers’ wages. 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.
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 PC
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 a few 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’d like to thank you, Mr. Klees, again for
taking the time to reply to my letter. I
appreciate the PC Party’s support of Bill 115 for the purpose of “getting the province’s
fiscal house in order”, as quoted from your letter. 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
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
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