Toronto Substitute Teachers Action Caucus
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Dictatorship Rules!
OTBU AGM snuffs out membership in-put
At a difficult to reach location in Don Mills, retired teachers swarmed and out-voted regular substitute teachers at the Annual General Meeting of the Toronto Occasional Teachers' Bargaining Unit on April 28, 2005. The result was sweeping change to the OTBU Constitution, concentrating virtually all authority in the hands of nine members – the OTBU Executive, which came to power in a bogus, mail-in ballot election a year earlier.
Undoubtedly, the ‘new order’ will have a very negative impact on members' rights, and thus will severely prejudice our job security and working conditions. Keen membership vigilance, and well-organized rank and file opposition to the Executive will now be more important than ever.
What’s in the Executive's new, undemocratic constitution?
1. A ban on discussion of constitution amendments, except at the Annual General Meeting. (This idea was defeated by members at the AGM one year ago.)
2. A ban on discussion of any change to the Special Levy, except at the Annual General Meeting. (50 cents is taken from each member's pay for each day worked. The Executive has a surplus of $100,000 in the bank, and spends thousands of dollars holding meetings in rented facilities, instead of using free District 12 or TDSB space.)
3. Exclusive executive control of OTBU money. No longer do expenditures require approval at a General Membership Meeting. The Executive needs to report only once a year on how it has spent the money.
4. Elimination of several Standing Committees of the OTBU, including the Professional Development, Communications and Excellence, Political Action, and Health and Safety Committees. The Executive called it “streamlining”, but it is really about control, because the Executive can create and dissolve ad hoc committees when ever it likes, appointing and removing committee members at will.
5. Removal of observer status on the Executive for the Chairs of Standing Committees, and elimination of the duty of Chairs to report to General Meetings.
6. Removal of the right of ordinary members to join the Collective Bargaining Committee (CBC). Membership on that committee is subject to ‘confirmation’ by the Executive. In other words, the CBC becomes a committee of members hand-picked by the Executive.
7. The hand-picked CBC appoints the Negotiating Team. Rank and file members have no direct say in the composition of the Negotiating Team or the formulation of contract demands.
8. The Election Committee is chosen by the Executive from any members who apply to be on it. Thus, executive members pick the people to run the very election that will pick their successors.
9. The quorum of general meetings is increased from "those members present" to sixty-five (65) members.
10. The Executive has exclusive control of the calling of General Meetings. The Executive has only to "consider granting a request for a General Meeting when a petition ... from 150 members is presented to the Secretary." Previously, 50 members signing a petition had the power to call a General Meeting.
It is now very likely that there will be only one General Membership Meeting per year, apart from the AGM in the Spring.
Why did the Executive take this machine gun approach to local democratic life forms? It reflects a nervous and bitter response by the Executive to the repudiation of the self-appointed bargaining team by over one third of voting OTBU members in the February strike vote.
The Executive feverishly lashed out at its opponents, trying to tighten the veil of secrecy around its operations, trying to stifle opposition, and to curtail leadership accountability for the foreseeable future. Their general orientation fits with that of provincial OSSTF officials -- which is to dissolve the OTBUs into the regular contract teacher bargaining units where substitute teachers would pay dues but have virtually no voice in matters that affect our working lives.
This OTBU version of the War Measures Act faced strong opposition at the April 28 AGM. But debates were marked by jeering and heckling, and were cut short by closure motions. The meeting Chair refused to take a standing count on crucial votes to change the constitution, requiring a 2/3 majority. The Chair likewise refused to count votes on Action Caucus motions to hold OTBU meetings at a central location near the subway line, and to seek elimination of secondary school principals’ “preferred lists” of Occasional Teachers. Thus, there are no vote numbers to report.
Now it is vital that substitute teachers organize at the grass roots level to defend our remaining rights on the job and in the union. Tell your colleagues and friends to get off their good intentions and attend the next...
Toronto Substitute Teachers’ Action Caucus meeting
Thursday, May 12, 4:30 p.m.
at OISE, 252 Bloor St. W., room 2-213 For more information call the Toronto Substitute Teachers’ Action Caucus Help Line at 416 - 588-9090.
Visit the Action Caucus web site at: www.angelfire.com/toronto_substitutes
Contact Us: Hotline: 416 - 588 - 9090 | email: Substitute Teachers' Action Caucus