Sharron Raymond, ETFO Staff
The year was 1979, and with two years of teaching to her credit, Sharron Raymond found herself walking the pavement in the first ever Peel elementary teachers’ strike to ensure a fair and transparent staffing process, where seniority meant something. The flame of unionism was lit.
Following the Days of Protest, supported by her colleagues at Caledon East Public School, Sharron was elected to the Peel collective bargaining committee as chief negotiator. During the 2004 round of negotiations, after a straight 58 hours of head-to-head negotiations, Sharron’s team was able to achieve parity with secondary in benefit funding for elementary teachers.
In 2005, Sharron was acclaimed president of the Peel Elementary Teachers’ Local. With an amazing team including Tim Cunningham, Kurt Uriarte and Suzanne Gill, limits on staff meetings, supervision and report cards were achieved. As well, an admirably argued arbitration guaranteed Peel elementary teachers jurisdiction over preparation time. At the 2005 Annual Meeting, Sharron was elected to the provincial Executive. She takes particular pride in the accomplishments of two workgroups – the environmental workgroup that developed guidelines for locals and the provincial office to ensure that ETFO reduced its environmental footprint, and the disabilities workgroup that sought to ensure buildings, communications and ETFO events were accessible to all. During her second term on the provincial Executive, Sharron also served as an OTF Governor.
In 2008, Sharron joined the ETFO provincial office staff as Executive Assistant in Collective Bargaining. She has been honored to serve members from across the province. Frozen into her memory is the Keewatin Patricia one-day strike in 2012 that found her walking with local president Anne Saltel and her members in -25°C weather, not counting the wind chill. Equally memorable are the days spent hanging out in front of board offices organizing the DECE members. Sharron wishes to thank three wonderful Rainbow DECEs – Lynn and the Rebeccas – for sticking with her during the negotiations of a first collective agreement. Other memorable moments include working with a great team on Union School, liaising with the Collective Bargaining Standing Committee, sitting on a number of Ministry committees, midnight phone calls with CB colleagues and playing in the OTIP golf tournament with team Lee.
Today, Sharron can be found volunteering with Caledon Victim Services and Vera Davis Nursing Home, practicing Tai Chi or on the links with her husband.
