TORONTO, July 9, 2015 /CNW/ – The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association has taken a stand against the provincial government’s efforts to further erode the classroom experience for students and teachers, by placing itself in a legal strike position by mid-August.

Despite its best efforts to reach an agreement with the employer team (the government of Ontario and the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association), OECTA was unwilling to accept attacks on its collective agreement that would adversely affect student learning conditions and the working environment of Ontario’s Catholic teachers.

“The government’s aim is to make profound cuts to our collective agreements that would have a negative impact on students, their families, and our hard working teachers, who are already stretched to the limit,” said Ann Hawkins, OECTA president. “Our members are standing up for what’s right for the education system, principles the employer does not seem to be taking seriously.”

The government and trustees are intent on eroding teachers’ working conditions despite the negative impact it will have in the classroom, and for families across Ontario.

In April, OECTA members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate, with 94.2%. Following that vote, OECTA continued to bargain with the assistance of a mediator appointed by the Ministry of Labour. On June 24, OECTA filed for conciliation, hoping this process would provide the impetus for meaningful negotiations to continue.

Union representatives have requested a “no board” report, issued when conciliation is unsuccessful and the parties are unable to negotiate a collective agreement. OECTA will be in a legal strike position 17 days after the ‘no board” report is issued, likely by mid-August.

“We are extremely disappointed,” said Hawkins. “The Liberal government has repeatedly stated its commitment to the bargaining process, yet remains more interested in appeasing the elected trustees than addressing the needs of teachers and their students.”

OECTA represents the 50,000 professional women and men who teach all grades in publicly funded English Catholic schools in Ontario.

SOURCE Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association

For further information: To arrange an interview with Ann Hawkins, please contact: Janine Druery, Communications Specialist, 416-925-2493 ext 472, j.druery@oecta.on.ca

Jul 3, 2015

With Health Canada’s recent reversal of its position on the health risks of asbestos, it’s time for the Harper government to scrap recent changes that encourage imports and exports of this dangerous substance.

In mid-2014, the Harper government’s omnibus budget Bill C-31 added language to the Hazardous Products Act (HPA).  Rather than banning asbestos, the additions to the HPA explicitly laid out how asbestos can be sold in or imported to Canada if certain minimal requirements were met. Many products containing asbestos, like car brake linings and pads, are still regularly imported into Canada, with imports of asbestos products to Canada actually on the rise.

Meanwhile, Health Canada has removed references that downplayed the risk of exposure to asbestos, making their new apparent stance on asbestos much stronger, and more closely aligned with World Health Organization standards. The new language removes suggestions that chrysotile asbestos (the type of asbestos the government previously defended as safer) was “less potent”, and that “significant quantities” need to be inhaled to be dangerous. These changes put the Harper government’s continued public support for the substance in a particularly poor light.

Though Health Canada’s change in position is welcome, these changes alone are not a solution to protect workers. The real issue lies in both federal and provincial regulations, which are often weak or go unenforced, leaving workers at risk. Without stronger regulations and better enforcement, asbestos will continue to be a problem for workers.

Asbestos continues to make CUPE members sick. Members working in maintenance (general, electrical, plumbing, HVAC etc.) are at higher risk.  Even after materials are removed, they go to landfills that are poorly setup to deal with large-scale disposal. As a result, workers get exposed when bags get ripped open or resurface after they have been buried.

CUPE continues to call for an outright ban on the import, export, or use of asbestos within Canada, along with just transition programs for those who continue to live in areas affected by the asbestos mine closures.  Furthermore, CUPE calls on our government to actively support the inclusion of the chrysotile form of asbestos to the hazardous chemical list covered by the UN treaty called the Rotterdam Convention. Inclusion of asbestos in the convention would help protect workers both here in Canada and abroad by making it more difficult to import and export the deadly product.

The legacy of harm caused by asbestos is significant—it’s the largest cause of workplace death in Canada. The continued use of the product will harm workers for decades.

BY CHRISTINA BLIZZARD, QUEEN’S PARK COLUMNIST

FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2015 07:00 PM EDT | UPDATED: SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2015 08:10 PM EDT

Education Minister Liz Sandals

TORONTO – Changes to the funding formula in special education are forcing school boards to cut back on support services to some of the province’s most vulnerable children.

According to NDP education critic Lisa Gretzky, 38 boards have seen cuts totalling $22.5 million to special education. One Toronto board is out $3.5 million.

“As a result, those boards are then having to cut their resources to the student,” Gretzky said in an interview.

She said special education teachers and education assistants are being fired as boards scramble to balance their books in the face of funding cutbacks to special education services.

“These are the professionals in the school system that would actually provide services to the students with special needs in the school system,” she said.

Kids with autism, with learning disabilities and other special needs are losing vital programs, Gretzky said.

“Their needs are very varied and very specific.

“The people who would be able to adjust the learning to the specific students, based on their specific needs, they’re no longer going to have those professionals to help support them.”

She said a lot of special needs kids are being integrated into the regular classroom — without the extra support they need to cope.

“Obviously they’re going to fall behind,” she said.

Gretzky said there’s an economic impact of the layoffs, especially in her Windsor West riding that’s been hard hit by unemployment in the auto sector.

“We have the highest unemployment rate in the province here in Windsor.

“We are now adding more people to that list. That’s not good for the economy in my area or any of the other areas where they’re letting staff go,” she said.

There are about 44,000 students on a waitlist just to have their needs identified, she said. “These are kids who’ve been identified with some sort of special education need but they haven’t yet been assessed,” said Gretzky, who was a trustee for the Greater Essex County School Board before being elected to Queen’s Park.

“It’s really going to affect literacy and numeracy.”

Toronto District School Board trustee Tiffany Ford said her board is seeing millions in cutbacks to special education.

“We are in deficit every year to the tune of millions due to a provincial funding model that does not adequately serve the needs of the most vulnerable,” she said.

“Unfortunately, if we are provided with insufficient funding, parents and families will experience the effects of it. Our staff does an excellent job with what we are given by the ministry, but it is consistently never enough,” said Ford, who is vice chair of the board’s Special Education Advisory Committee.

The Durham District School Board is one of the hardest hit boards.

The province recently changed the way they fund special education, said the board’s special education superintendent, Richard Kennelly. His board will lose almost $2 million over the next four years.

Previously, the ministry allocated funding on a per pupil basis. Some boards received less money than others per student. In an effort to address that inequity, the education ministry took money from boards that got more to spread around the province.

“What ended up happening was that boards like ourselves built up programming based on the funding we were receiving. When the ministry went to level the field, they said ‘we’re not adding any new dollars. We’re going to redistribute the money we have’.”

Boards that were funded at a higher level had money taken away from them.

“You established programming based on demonstrated needs and now that money’s being reduced,” he said.

His board is attempting to move resources around to lessen the impact on students.

“Our goal is to put supports in place which will provide for the same outcomes for the students, based on whether they’re in the mainstream or they’re in a small class,” he said.

They were able to absorb the cuts last year, but have been forced to implement cuts for next year.

“For next year, we do have to do some classroom reductions. We don’t know what the outcomes will be. We think we have some good plans in place but until everything’s played out, we won’t know,” he said.

“We will certainly be monitoring the students to find out what the impact is.”

Education Minister Liz Sandals said her government has increased special ed funding 68% since 2003 and will increase it again for the 2015-16 school year to $2.72 billion.

“We have also been responsive to school boards and their request for more effective special education funding across the province,” she said.

“In working with them and other stakeholders, the ministry is transitioning to a more fair and equitable way to distribute among school boards the portion of special education funding available for students with high needs.

“This will ensure boards can be responsive to the needs of their students and local community.”

***********

• More than 331,000 students receive special education support.
• An estimated 44,000 students are on wait lists for assessments with identification, placement and review committees, or for services.
• 57% of elementary and 53% of secondary principals report restrictions on waiting lists for special ed assessments.
• The average number of students with special ed needs for each educational assistant is 21 in elementary schools and 57 in secondary schools.
• Nearly 80% of school boards spend more on special education than they receive from the province.
• In the 2015-16 Grants for Student Needs, special education funding has been cut for 38 school boards, totalling $22.5 million in cuts next year.

— Source, People for Education

June 23, 2015 09:50 ET

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – June 23, 2015) – With the close of the school year upon us, the union representing 55,000 education workers in Ontario warns of widespread cuts looming in the province’s schools. CUPE has been analyzing school board budgets as they have been passed this spring, and a portrait has started to emerge of the impact of changes to the province’s education funding formula.

Unions serve four absolutely essential functions in our society.

1. Gains for workers through collective bargaining

The primary function of unions is to unite workers and give them the strength together that they would not have facing their employer alone. Through collective bargaining, workers negotiate better working conditions, wages and benefits. Collective bargaining works!

Through collective bargaining we get results for workers:

• Decent wages
• Safer working conditions
• Health, dental and vision benefits
• Protection from harassment
• Parental leave top-up
• Elder care and bereavement leave
• Pension and retirement benefits
• Long-term disability
• Vacation above the minimum
• Sick leave

2. Gains that benefit all workers

The positive impact of unions is felt by more than just union members. By opposing the erosion of rights and fighting for better labour laws, unions improve the working conditions of non-unionized workers as well. Everybody benefits.

Every gain that unions make raises standards for all workers. New gains happen every day:

• Health and safety laws
• Parental leave
• Basic employment standards
• Pay equity
• Same-sex benefits
• The 8-hour day and the weekend
• Minimum wages
• Vacation standards and statutory holidays
• Anti-harassment laws
• A voice in your workplace

3. Helping to build a more just society

Unions also advance the values of ​​change, social progress and economic fairness. Unions contribute to a more just and inclusive economy, and a stronger middle class. They also protect and promote quality services for everyone.

Unions advocate for new and better services for all:

• The Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security
• Human rights laws
• Quality public services like education, health care, and child care
• Services in support of healthy communities like waste management, clean water, public health and social services
• Employment insurance and other supports for workers

4. Fighting setbacks to democracy and solidarity

Today, our social progress and economic fairness are seriously threatened. Many governments are attacking the ability of unions to organize and represent their members, and to support broader issues of democracy and social justice.

Some politicians want to undermine your ability to bargain collectively by taking away your union’s right to collect dues from all members, or by stopping us from taking political action. Our action helps create laws that benefit working people, and if the politicians succeed, everyone will be worse off.

For all these reasons, the Unite for Fairness project is one of CUPE’s top priorities for the coming years.

Copied from www.cupe.ca

Dane Wanniarachige
Jun 16, 2015 – 9:39 PM EDT
Last Updated: Jun 16, 2015 – 9:39 PM EDT

Public education workers rallied outside the Greater Essex County School Board office Tuesday to protest local and provincial cuts to education, moments after the 2015-16 public school board budget was passed.

“They’ve now just passed a budget that eliminates the 21 support workers and seven deaf and hard of hearing support workers,” said Martha Hradowy, president of educational support staff of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.

“All of the cuts they’re proposing to find efficiency directly affect our youngest learners and students with special needs,” Hradowy said.

The cuts come after a projected decline of more than 400 elementary students  in the GEDSB for the upcoming school year, amidst mounting empty student spaces already in the system. The cuts are expected to eliminate jobs for close to 40 early childhood educators and special needs support workers.

Minutes after trustees passed the $415.3-million budget — including a rise in senior administration costs by $55,000 to $7.16 million — picketers representing CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF listened to speeches and were vocal about their discontent.

“We’re here to say that we’re tired of this. It is always the front-line workers that are cut while administration increases,” said Dianne Serran, a CUPE member.

Demonstrators also opposed tabled demands by the Ontario School Boards Association and provincial government that would “allow increased class sizes and compromise teacher working conditions and students’ learning conditions.”

Adelina Cecchin, president of the Greater Essex local for the province’s elementary public school teachers union, says that the proposal is not solution-oriented and has not been fairly negotiated.

“OPSBA and the government have not changed their position at all or negotiated in any meaningful way since February,” she said.

Cecchin said the lack of movement is behind the recent elementary school teachers work-to-rule campaign.

“We are rallying to ask our trustees to speak up against OPSBA contract strips, and to put pressure on the provincial government to support small class sizes and learning conditions for all students including those with special needs,” she said.

dwanniarachige@windsorstar.com

“The kids know if anything happens, Mr. Steve is going to take care of it.”

By Shai Williamson | Good News – Fri, 12 Jun, 2015

He may not be globally known, but Steve Weidner is the closest thing these children have to a rock star.

Over 100 second-grade students waited patiently for their turn to get the signature from their beloved custodian, who they call “Mr. Steve.”

Bourbonnais Elementary School District #53 posted the photo to their Facebook page, the caption reading that Weidner “reached Rock Star status as he autographs yearbooks for his ‘fans!’”

The photo shows around half of the second-grade students waiting in line to get Weidner’s signature, while the other half had already gotten it before the picture got taken.

“He pays attention to the kids,” Principal Shirley Padera told WGNtv. “He knows who they are.”

“The kids know if anything happens, Mr. Steve is going to take care of it.”

Weidner, who has been a custodian at the school for 15 years, told ABC News that he and the students “get along great.”

“They are really great. We joke around a bunch and they’re able to talk to me and stuff like that.”

On the day the photo was taken, Weidner was spotted by a group of second graders, who then asked for his autograph. As time went on, the group of students anticipating his signature grew and grew.

“You get one, you get all of them,” Weidner told ABC News. “Once they got in a line I sat down.”

A few days after the picture surfaced online, it got posted to Reddit and has now been seen over 3.5 million times.

“I think it’s awesome an employee with no obligation to be a part of these children’s lives has made such an impact [that] they’re willing to wait in line just for his signature,” wrote a Reddit user under the name ‘gagewhite.’

“He goes above and beyond,” Padera told WGNtv. “He’s loved by all the students and the teachers. He’s great!”

CTV Toronto
Published Monday, June 8, 2015 1:52PM EDT
Last Updated Monday, June 8, 2015 6:15PM EDT

A new report from a provincial advocacy group says there are gaps in Ontario’s public school system, including a lack of resources for special education students and inadequate teachers’ training on aboriginal issues.The report, titled “The Gap Between Policy and Reality”  was released on Monday by the People for Education.

According to the group, the student-to-teacher ratio in special education classrooms are the highest they’ve ever been in recent years. On average, there are more than 35 special needs students per special education teacher at the elementary school level, and nearly 80 per educator at the high school level.

Many parents, including nine-year-old Spencer Powell’s mother, believes this is potentially jeopardizing their child’s education.

“I see teachers really stressed out … being able to manage special needs takes up so much time,” said Powell’s mother, whose autistic son attends an Etobicoke school.

 More training on aboriginal issues needed

The report also highlighted a need for improved training on aboriginal issues.

According to the report, only 29 per cent of elementary schools and 47 per cent of high schools offer teacher training on aboriginal issues. These are troubling numbers, according to the group’s executive director, who says educators play an important role in delivering information about Canada’s history.

“There is an ambitious curriculum and an ambitious policy in the province, but when we look at what’s actually happening in schools, all kids aren’t necessarily getting educated on aboriginal issues all the way from kindergarten through to Grade 12,” Annie Kidder told The Canadian Press.

“Teachers for the most part say they are not comfortable teaching indigenous culture and issues.”

Across Ontario, the report shows that 92 per cent of elementary schools and 96 per cent of high schools have aboriginal students.

Monday’s report comes one week after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on the Ontario government to ensure all students are taught about the history of First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

That commission’s report followed a six-year study of residential schools in Canada, which concluded the system was a “cultural genocide” that led to the deaths of more than 6,000 children.

“Reconciliation has to happen with everybody,” Kidder said. “And education is key to making that happen.”

Monday’s report was based on a survey answers from nearly 1,200 Ontario principals.

The report made a number of recommendations, including adding a special education ombudsman at each school board.

 With files from CTV Toronto’s Naomi Parness and The Canadian Press