During his speech, President Hammond referenced the demands that have been made by the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA), which include:

• interfering with the self-directed preparation time teachers and occasional teachers need to plan their lessons and prepare specialized plans for students;
• having teachers do more testing and less teaching;
• taking education support staff away from their classroom responsibilities with students to do non-classroom tasks;
• allowing principals the ‘flexibility’ to pass over experienced, qualified educators for classroom positions.

President Hammond indicated that “things must change at the central bargaining table quickly. Our provincial Executive has determined that we will stay on course and begin a Phase 2 work-to-rule in addition to the current administrative strike action…effective the first working day of the 2015-2016 school year.”

For more information on ETFO’s Phase 2 work-to-rule, please go to the Our Union CB website.

On the agenda for Thursday:

• continued work on resolutions,
• final review and approval of the 2015-16 budget, and
• the President’s Closing Remarks

Our delegates are wearing red t-shirts emblazoned with the message ‘Bargaining for the Future . . . Respecting Our Past’.

L to R: Susan Swackhammer, President’s Award winner Maureen Weinberger, Sam Hammond, President’s Award winner James McCormack

MEDIA RELEASE:

Halton’s Maureen Weinberger, Waterloo Region’s James McCormack receive prestigious ETFO President’s Award

 For Immediate Release – August 20, 2015

(TORONTO)  Maureen Weinberger and James McCormack, retiring vice-presidents of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), received the prestigious annual President’s Award at the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario’s (ETFO) Annual Meeting dinner last night.

In announcing the award, ETFO President Sam Hammond paid tribute to the role that both Maureen and James have played as elected officers of the Federation.

“I would not be here as president if it were not for the support of Maureen and James as elected vice-presidents on ETFO’s provincial Executive,” said Hammond. “It has been an amazing journey that we have taken together to represent ETFO’s 78,000 members.”

A teacher from Halton, Maureen served as the Federation’s vice-president from 2009-2015. She participated and chaired a number of ETFO’s task forces and has also served as vice-president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation from 2013-2015.

James was elected vice-president of ETFO in 2011. A former president of the Waterloo Region Teacher local, he also sat on the Executive Board of the Ontario Federation of Labour as vice-president.

“Maureen and James have dedicated their lives to the teaching profession, the union movement and ETFO. Their leadership has been instrumental in helping advance and defend the rights of ETFO members and the teaching profession at home and abroad,” added Hammond.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario represents 78,000 elementary public school teachers and education professionals across the province and is the largest teacher federation in Canada.

Media Release

Gene Lewis’ journey in education began with walking to and from a one-room school house in rural Ontario and ended working in the ETFO office in downtown Toronto. His teaching and union work began in Hamilton, continued in London (Thames Valley) and concluded in the role of General Secretary. He was always the union contact for his school and served in many capacities on local executives including president.

The formation of ETFO was a highlight in his career and a major benefit to all elementary teachers and education professionals in Ontario.

During his tenure as General Secretary, both the nature and complexity of issues facing educators, and by extension the Federation, grew exponentially. In its early years the groundwork was laid to build a new Federation that would become greater than the sum of its parts. Campaign 200, Accountability Yes: Recertification No, Building For Tomorrow, Close the Gap, strengthening the Defense Fund, the PA/PR Fund, OFL and CLC membership, focused collective bargaining, innovative professional growth programs, leadership in equity and social justice, advances for occasional teachers, membership for designated early childhood educators, the Humanitarian Fund, leading edge technology and building a new home are actions ETFO took to enhance the personal and professional lives of members. ETFO engaged members and became increasingly sophisticated in the use of political action, paid media and social media campaigns. The Federation distinguished itself as a principled voice for public education, and a strong collective bargaining agent for elementary educators.

Gene credits the strong and effective leadership in ETFO locals as a big factor in the achievements of the beginning years and the key to future success. He is very thankful to have worked with so many dedicated and caring provincial Executive members, each of whom brought a personal passion and commitment to the role.

Gene is particularly pleased to have worked with four provincial Presidents who shared a common desire to build a strong public education system for Ontario’s children and to build a strong union to promote and protect the welfare and rights of Ontario’s teachers and education professionals – Phyllis Benedict, Emily Noble, David Clegg and Sam Hammond, and expresses a debt of gratitude to each of them.

Gene believes that the many gains that have been achieved are the result of a strong effort by a dynamic and industrious support staff, a creative and dedicated management staff and an energetic and talented senior staff.

Media Release

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.