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’.

• Ontario teachers ramp up PR campaign ahead of negotiations
  CBC News – Tuesday, August 18, 2015
• Liberals, school boards ‘in for the fight of their lives’
  The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, August 18, 2015
• ETFO’s federal election plan to ‘Heave Steve’
  Toronto Sun – Monday, August 17, 2015
• Liberals, school boards ‘in for the fight of their lives,’ says teachers’ union president
  The Star – Monday, August 17, 2015
• Sam Hammond vows the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario will not to back down in bargaining
  Durham Region – Monday, August 17, 2015

TORONTO, ON – Sam Hammond was re-elected president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) at its Annual Meeting today for a fourth term. He has served as ETFO president since 2009.

“I am proud to lead a union that is united in its resolve to do what’s right for public education, our teaching and working conditions and student learning conditions,” Hammond told 800 delegates at the meeting. “We are educators and it is our work that continues to make Ontario’s education system one of the best in the world.”

“We are facing a government and a school board association that want to roll back a decade of negotiated classroom improvements and compromise the ability of teachers to do what’s best for their students in the current round of central negotiations. Teacher preparation time and professional judgment, for example, are critical to providing students what they need to succeed.”

“In 2012, ETFO members took a principled stand against Bill 115 to protect the fundamental rights of all working people. In 2015, we are taking a principled stand to stop the erosion of teacher professionalism that is a pillar of Ontario’s education system.”

Hammond, who served as an ETFO vice-president from 2004-2007 and as first vice-president from 2007 to 2009, was elected to the provincial Executive in 2003. He has been a teacher in Hamilton-Wentworth for 27 years and has taught physical education and health from Junior Kindergarten to grade 8. He served the Hamilton-Wentworth ETFO Teacher Local as chief negotiator and grievance officer for five years.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario represents 76,000 elementary public school teachers and education professionals across the province and is the largest teacher federation in Canada.

ETFO President Sam Hammond highlights the work of the union over the past year.

President Hammond spoke directly to those who question the democratic nature of unions:

To those critics who suggest unions are not democratic or that we lack transparency, I say pay attention over the next several days. This Annual Meeting is our union democracy at work, and delegates play a central role in that process. You represent your 78,000 colleagues in deciding how our union will move forward.

He later discussed the programs that ETFO has developed and offered this year:

ETFO is one of the best providers of professional learning for educators in Canada. This year, like every year, there were hundreds of professional learning opportunities for our members through conferences, workshops and AQ courses.

We offer amazing opportunities for our members, our ETFO Union School,  . . . and Still we Rise, the ETFO Local Leader Virtual Academy, our Early Years Website, to name but a few.

In July, for example, thousands of members participated in our Summer Academy and many of our sisters took part in the Sisters in the Struggle.

Our members’ values are reflected in the work we do as a union, and that’s why ETFO is an equity leader.

This year, through The Pride House That Kids Built, we helped bring the message to all Ontario elementary students and to all athletes and visitors to the 2015 TORONTO Pan Am Games that sport must be inclusive for all people, especially LGBTQ athletes and youth.

We will continue our work on this issue with the fall release of ETFO’s new LGBTQ Inclusive School Place Starts Here video and accompanying guide for educators which explores homophobia and transphobia in school communities.

This past year, ETFO developed a curriculum guide for teachers from Kindergarten to Grade 8 that introduces First Nations, Métis and Inuit histories and realities in age-appropriate ways.

We also toured Spirit Horse, a powerful play that challenges cultural stereotypes and confronts racism, to schools in Southern Ontario.

ETFO will continue to develop resources and programing to support FNMI education.

It is clear that ETFO does far more than negotiate strong collective agreements!

He later focused on collective bargaining and reminded the delegates of the need to remember the past while we negotiate for the the future. The rights and entitlements which ETFO members enjoy in their collective agreements today weren’t given to us by school boards, OPSBA or the Government, they were fought for by ETFO members standing firm over the years.

There were some incredible success on the bargaining front in the 2014-15 year as the collective action of ETFO members had a significant impact, particularly with the cancellation of EQAO.

Hammond sent a very clear message to the Liberal government by reminding them that ETFO has always been ready and willing to negotiate a fair collective agreement for our members. It’s been almost a year since collective agreements expired:

Why have you allowed OPSBA to control the bargaining agenda and sidetrack negotiations for months now?

He then compared the Liberal government’s education policy to the positions OPSBA has put forward in bargaining:

Education policy is based on the fact that outstanding education systems support teacher professional judgement yet OPSBA wishes to erode this.

The Liberal government introduced Full Day Kindergarten with DECEs and teachers working side by side together to provide the best possible program for our youngest students yet now they want to change this removing DECEs from the classroom for hours a week.

The Liberal government implemented class size caps in the primary grades because they know that lower class sizes are good for students yet now they wish to remove any staffing language from local collective agreements.

The government introduced a regulation that goes a long way to support fair hiring practices by school boards yet OPSBA wants to turn back the clock on this.

He then wondered:

Why is the Liberal government silent when OPSBA comes to the bargaining table with proposals that would undermine all these things? Saying nice things and talking about your partners in education might get you elected. But just saying nice things about wanting to restart bargaining isn’t going to cut it. We need action and a real commitment to negotiate in good faith.

Hammond’s final message to the government and OPSBA was focused on the upcoming September 1st bargaining date:

We expect the parties sitting at that table on September 1 to engage in serious bargaining that will result in a fair central collective agreement for our members that respects our past and the future of publicly funded public education in this province. Otherwise and let me be clear: If that doesn’t happen, then I say to the government and OPSBA you are in for the fight of your lives!

The delegates responded with a spontaneous and lengthy standing ovation.

ETFO staff Lorna Larmour welcomes the delegates to the 2015 ETFO Annual Meeting

The chair of credentials announces the delegate count and Session 1 of the 2015 ETFO Annual Meeting has begun.

Delegates prepared to participate in the 2015 ETFO Annual Meeting.

610 teachers, occasional teachers, education support personnel, education support personnel, and designated early childhood educators from across the Ontario have arrived to debate resolutions and set the union’s direction for the upcoming year.

Delegates from the Lambton Kent Teacher Local.

Vice-President James McCormack introduces ETFO President Sam Hammond to give the President’s Address.

ETFO President Sam Hammond hi-lights the work of the union over the past year.

ETFO President Sam Hammond will open the proceedings on Monday afternoon with a review of the year’s activities including an overview of collective bargaining. On Thursday, ETFO’s president will address next steps regarding current collective bargaining. Both speeches will be live streamed at http://annualmeeting.ca/live-stream/

This year’s social justice speaker on Tuesday is well-known Aboriginal leader Wab Kinew, whose forth-coming book The Reason You Walk: A Memoir offers an insider’s view of what it means to be an educated Aboriginal living in a country that is just beginning to wake up to its aboriginal history.

ETFO represents 76,000 elementary public school teachers and education professionals across the province and is the largest teacher federation in Canada.

What: ETFO Annual Meeting
Where: Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, Metropolitan Ballroom, 1 Harbour Square, Toronto
When: August 17-20, 2015

Reporters are welcome to attend sessions. Media credentials are available at the ETFO Media Centre (Queens Quay 1). For meeting hours, daily agenda and resolutions, see www.annualmeeting.ca and click on the documents tab. Regular updates will be posted to our blog located at that website, on Twitter @ETFOnews, @ETFOmedia and #ETFOam, and Facebook (ETFOprovincialoffice).

MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

Mon., Aug. 17        4:20 p.m.
                                Live streamed welcoming address by Sam Hammond, ETFO President

Tues., Aug. 18       10:45 a.m.
                                Address by Wab Kinew, Aboriginal leader, writer, urban activist

Thurs. Aug. 20      11:00 a.m.
                                Live streamed address by ETFO President

For more information, contact:

Valerie Dugale:  (416) 948-0195 (cell); vdugale@etfo.org
James Taylor:  (416) 459-1047 (cell); jtaylor@etfo.org
August 17-20: ETFO Media Centre, Queens Quay 1, Westin Harbour Castle Hotel – 416-957-7166