Welcome to the new Teachhard blog for teachers who work for Toronto Catholic DSB, esp Occasional Teachers, or OT's. There has been less enthusiasm in the response to this blog then I was hoping so I'm moderating the post. Um, ok, so I will be somewhat gentler on my union and my local in my post and I will say that I'm pretty unhappy with the way they have allowed the board to have total control of contract positions and the union and the local are to blame somewhat, and the province, because the Collective Bargaining Agreement, (CBA), doesn't say they have to hire the most experienced and the most qualified and the province approved of the CBA. Pretty ridiculous to me. And I'm quite worried about what they may give away in this next contract. So share horror stories or stories of victory, if you want. I think we need pressure on the board and the union to provide the lists of contract jobs that they are hiding. Use this public forum. Tell us what experiences you had and maybe we can get some change. T.H.
Update, April 5, 2015
One of the main motivators behind me creating this blog was the fact that it became common knowledge among substitute teachers with TCDSB that the board had hired two of the sons of a trustee into full-time, permanent teaching positions while totally passing over hundreds of more experienced and more qualified substitute teachers as well as the son and daughter of a superintendent who is now retired and the daughters of two principals who are now retired. This happened in a union shop and no grievances were filed over this hiring. Several examples of unadvertised contract positions were also shared among substitute teachers that were filled by less-experienced substitute teachers, many of whom had family members who were principals or secretaries, who are members of a different union than the substitute teachers. Several substitute teachers attended meetings of the local, described the unfair hiring and asked why these positions were filled this way in a union shop. The vice-president of the local for MANY years, Joanne Maher, claimed that this was the way it is with this board and there was nothing they could do. One determined substitute teacher, (o.t.) studied the collective bargaining agreement, (cba), and the clause on Long-Term Occasional Contracts, and he found several cba's from other Catholic boards and from public boards and he found that the clause for Toronto Catholic occasionals was much looser than the clause with the other boards. He went to another union meeting and asked members of the executive, who negotiate the cba on behalf of members, while looking out for their best interest, or so it is assumed, and Joanne Maher said that was because the board refused to accept a clause that was more strict than that. No one actually jumped up and called her a bold-faced liar but several substitute teachers who were consulted later did not believe her and it smelled pretty rotten.
Fast-forward to July, 2012: OECTA is the first teachers union to sign the new teachers contract, the Memorandum of Understanding, (M.O.U.), and OECTA had surrendered the right to strike, 10 out of 20 sick days per year, payout of 200 banked, unused sick days at retirement, long-term disability benefits, death benefits, all in exchange for one concession: regulation 274/12 that states that hiring will be based on experience and qualifications. The other teachers unions screamed "sell-out" and the boards refused to sign the contract. The province eventually offers public boards pay parity with Catholic teachers and it is rumoured some watering-down of reg 274/12. The boards get a year of the two-year contract to create a seniority list, (?), (not believed, probably so they can hire family one more year) and, it turns out, substitute teachers have to make it through an interview to get on the long-term occasional list that supposedly is used to hire for LTO's, which of course can be used as a process for completely undoing seniority and qualifications, and the board isn't offering training to become informed about the ministry guides substitutes are supposed to know to make it through the interview successfully. (What is that smell?) The president and vice-president of the local for substitutes with Toronto Catholic, TOTL, publicly state in their newsletter, "The MOU is working." Many ot's don't agree and are extremely suspicious of anything said by these long-time serving union members who are retired industrial arts and home economics teachers in their late-sixties and mid-seventies. More laughs to follow.
April 7, 2015: More info: a substitute teacher missed bus duty at a school, no one told him he had bus duty at the end of the day. The principal of the school writes him up for dereliction of duty, a pretty serious offence. He gets to a hearing and the superintendent asks him how it happened. He says no one told him he has bus duty. The superintendent sides with the occasional teacher and says, yes, it is the responsibility of the principal and the secretary to tell a visiting substitute teacher the duties they have. He wins the hearing. He asks the president of the local, who is still the president of the local, Felix Salazar, to help him get that reprimand off of his file. Felix says no, it was your responsibility to know your duties and to cover them. That reprimand is still on his file and he hasn't had a contract position since. But Felix is still the president of the local many years later because the retired teachers keep voting him in every two years.
Another example of a local that doesn't fight for occasional teachers, their members: the human resources department of the Toronto Catholic board mailed out letters to occasional teachers who completed long-term occasional contracts telling occasional teachers that they had been placed on an Eligible to Hire List and that this list was used to hire for long-term occasional contracts and for full-time, permanent positions. It was signed Bessie Grupusso, Manager of Human Resources. After seven years the Superintendent of Human Resources, Gary Poole, announced that there was no Eligible to Hire List so stopping asking HR about it and where they were on it. The president of the local, Felix Salazar, tells members in his newsletter column that they should stop asking about the Eligible to Hire List. There is no grievance filed and no action is taken by the union against the board for issuing letters that were a lie for seven years and no one is fired to strengthen the public's trust in public institutions. So what do you think about this local and this union? If all unions are as bad as this one why do we have unions? This is why I created this blog. Share your stories.
Update, April 5, 2015
One of the main motivators behind me creating this blog was the fact that it became common knowledge among substitute teachers with TCDSB that the board had hired two of the sons of a trustee into full-time, permanent teaching positions while totally passing over hundreds of more experienced and more qualified substitute teachers as well as the son and daughter of a superintendent who is now retired and the daughters of two principals who are now retired. This happened in a union shop and no grievances were filed over this hiring. Several examples of unadvertised contract positions were also shared among substitute teachers that were filled by less-experienced substitute teachers, many of whom had family members who were principals or secretaries, who are members of a different union than the substitute teachers. Several substitute teachers attended meetings of the local, described the unfair hiring and asked why these positions were filled this way in a union shop. The vice-president of the local for MANY years, Joanne Maher, claimed that this was the way it is with this board and there was nothing they could do. One determined substitute teacher, (o.t.) studied the collective bargaining agreement, (cba), and the clause on Long-Term Occasional Contracts, and he found several cba's from other Catholic boards and from public boards and he found that the clause for Toronto Catholic occasionals was much looser than the clause with the other boards. He went to another union meeting and asked members of the executive, who negotiate the cba on behalf of members, while looking out for their best interest, or so it is assumed, and Joanne Maher said that was because the board refused to accept a clause that was more strict than that. No one actually jumped up and called her a bold-faced liar but several substitute teachers who were consulted later did not believe her and it smelled pretty rotten.
Fast-forward to July, 2012: OECTA is the first teachers union to sign the new teachers contract, the Memorandum of Understanding, (M.O.U.), and OECTA had surrendered the right to strike, 10 out of 20 sick days per year, payout of 200 banked, unused sick days at retirement, long-term disability benefits, death benefits, all in exchange for one concession: regulation 274/12 that states that hiring will be based on experience and qualifications. The other teachers unions screamed "sell-out" and the boards refused to sign the contract. The province eventually offers public boards pay parity with Catholic teachers and it is rumoured some watering-down of reg 274/12. The boards get a year of the two-year contract to create a seniority list, (?), (not believed, probably so they can hire family one more year) and, it turns out, substitute teachers have to make it through an interview to get on the long-term occasional list that supposedly is used to hire for LTO's, which of course can be used as a process for completely undoing seniority and qualifications, and the board isn't offering training to become informed about the ministry guides substitutes are supposed to know to make it through the interview successfully. (What is that smell?) The president and vice-president of the local for substitutes with Toronto Catholic, TOTL, publicly state in their newsletter, "The MOU is working." Many ot's don't agree and are extremely suspicious of anything said by these long-time serving union members who are retired industrial arts and home economics teachers in their late-sixties and mid-seventies. More laughs to follow.
April 7, 2015: More info: a substitute teacher missed bus duty at a school, no one told him he had bus duty at the end of the day. The principal of the school writes him up for dereliction of duty, a pretty serious offence. He gets to a hearing and the superintendent asks him how it happened. He says no one told him he has bus duty. The superintendent sides with the occasional teacher and says, yes, it is the responsibility of the principal and the secretary to tell a visiting substitute teacher the duties they have. He wins the hearing. He asks the president of the local, who is still the president of the local, Felix Salazar, to help him get that reprimand off of his file. Felix says no, it was your responsibility to know your duties and to cover them. That reprimand is still on his file and he hasn't had a contract position since. But Felix is still the president of the local many years later because the retired teachers keep voting him in every two years.
Another example of a local that doesn't fight for occasional teachers, their members: the human resources department of the Toronto Catholic board mailed out letters to occasional teachers who completed long-term occasional contracts telling occasional teachers that they had been placed on an Eligible to Hire List and that this list was used to hire for long-term occasional contracts and for full-time, permanent positions. It was signed Bessie Grupusso, Manager of Human Resources. After seven years the Superintendent of Human Resources, Gary Poole, announced that there was no Eligible to Hire List so stopping asking HR about it and where they were on it. The president of the local, Felix Salazar, tells members in his newsletter column that they should stop asking about the Eligible to Hire List. There is no grievance filed and no action is taken by the union against the board for issuing letters that were a lie for seven years and no one is fired to strengthen the public's trust in public institutions. So what do you think about this local and this union? If all unions are as bad as this one why do we have unions? This is why I created this blog. Share your stories.
