eNewsletter - Collective Bargaining Special Edition No. 1

Teachers' salaries are not keeping up with the cost of living

ETFO eNewsletter - Bargaining Edition

NUMBER 1 - APRIL 4, 2012

ETFO's eNewsletter - Subscribe & Win!

Welcome to the first special edition of ETFO's eNewsletter devoted to collective bargaining.

Apple's iPad 3

These special editions are designed to provide ETFO members with information about the 2012 round of collective bargaining. Negotiations can sometimes move quickly; subscribing to the ETFO eNewsletter will ensure you get the up-to-the-minute bargaining news you need delivered to your inbox.

Use the link in the footer below to forward this newsletter to other ETFO members and encourage them to subscribe.

Subscribing is easy: just click on the purple button on the left side of this eNewsletter and follow the instructions.

To highlight the launch of the collective bargaining special editions, we're giving away three iPad 3 tablets to randomly selected subscribers between April 30th and June 30th, 2012.*

Up-to-date bargaining information and a chance to win an iPad 3: two great reasons to subscribe to ETFO's eNewsletter!

*Rules and contest details available on the Control Your Future website.

Thousands Attend PDT Information Sessions

After releasing the government's Provincial Discussion Table (PDT) proposal to ETFO members in late February, ETFO and its locals lost no time in organizing local meetings to review the details of the proposal, as well as their implications for ETFO members and the future of the teaching profession in Ontario.

ETFO members at a recent PDT information session

Since that time, several thousand Teachers, Occasional Teachers, ESPs/PSPs, and DECEs from across the province have met with ETFO President Sam Hammond and other members of ETFO's provincial Executive to discuss the PDT proposal, and to demonstrate their unequivocal support for a fair and respectful collective bargaining process in 2012.

Get Informed. Get Involved. ControlYourFuture.ca

Have you checked out ETFO's Control Your Future website yet? If not, now is a great time to review its expanded content.

Key to ETFO's collective bargaining communications strategy, the website is designed to educate ETFO members about collective bargaining and its significance to their professional and personal lives.

The website features collective bargaining information, news, and frequently asked questions; video updates and animations.

Members can also download the Control Your Future collective bargaining app - the first of its kind for any Canadian union. The app gives members access through their smart phones and tablets to updated bargaining news, FAQs, videos and many other features of the website.

The Control Your Future website: making it easier than ever to keep up with collective bargaining events.

Correcting Myths About Teachers' Salary Grids

A letter to the editor from ETFO President Sam Hammond was published in the Globe & Mail on March 13, 2012. In that letter, President Hammond outlined the implications of freezing or permanently altering teachers' salary grids. The letter is reprinted here:

Re Teachers' Salary Grid The True Test Of Premier's Mettle
(March 10)

After indebting themselves to obtain two university degrees required to become a certified teacher in Ontario, young people spend three to five years on average as an occasional teacher before starting at a low level on the "grid." It can take a decade or more for them to work through the grid to obtain a salary commensurate with their expertise and responsibilities. The highest salary level can only be achieved by taking extra training on their own time, at their own cost.

Freezing the grid or permanently altering it would punish newer teachers and discourage top-level candidates from entering the profession. So-called "austerity measures" will be a false economy when they lead to the destabilizing of key public services like education. Putting Ontarians to work in good jobs rather than creating a McJobs economy is the best way to get the province on the road to economic recovery.

Sam Hammond

President,
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario

For more information about the salary grid, please see the FAQ page on the Control Your Future website.