Toronto Substitute Teachers Action Caucus
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Dear sisters and brothers, colleagues:
Are you planning to attend the Toronto Substitute Teachers' Action Caucus meeting on Thursday, November 11, 4:30 p.m. at OISE, 252 Bloor St. West, room 2-279 (at St. George subway station)?
Light refreshments will be provided.
Please respond now to let us know whether you will attend.
Come and find out about .... the job situation, the OT dispatch list, working conditions in the schools, what happened to the collective bargaining committee, and the constitution amendments and rationale that the OTBU Executive refused to publish. Help prepare for the OTBU General Meeting set for December 7 and the election of delegates to represent us at the OSSTF convention (AMPA 2005).
Proposed Amendments to the Toronto OTBU Constitution
Unfortunately, the people now in control of the OTBU refuse to publish and circulate all the amendments, along with the rationale for each one, as submitted. They have tampered with the wording of the actual amendments, and while claiming there is a lack of space and funds to publish our rationale in their newsletter, they do publish their own misleading and distorting arguments in opposition to our amendments. Is this fair?
For accurate information, visit the new web site of the Toronto Substitute Teachers‚ Action Caucus at: https://www.angelfire.com/un/torontosubstitutes
Proposed Amendments #1 and #2
First submitted February 11, 2004, and re-submitted in May 2004.1. Be It Resolved That the District 12 Secondary Occasional Teachers‚ Constitution be amended by deletion of current Articles 1 to 11 and substitution of proposed * Articles 1 to 10. (Moved by Barry Weisleder, Seconded by Janine Carter)
2. Be It Resolved That the District 12 Secondary Occasional Teachers‚ Constitution be amended by deletion of current Bylaws 1 to 8 and substitution of proposed * Bylaws 1 to10 and 12 to 15.
(Moved by Barry Weisleder, Seconded by Janine Carter)* The proposed Articles and Bylaws are found in the previous Toronto OTBU Constitution, which was in force May 1998 through January 2004.
Rationale for Amendments #1 and #21. The new OTBU constitution, imposed in January 2004, is grossly undemocratic. It reduced the requirement to hold General Membership Meetings to only once a year. Previously, General Meetings were held 4 or 5 times a year. This facilitated healthy membership inter-action and involvement, enabling members to hold their leaders accountable.
The new constitution permits members to petition for a General Meeting. Such a binding petition was submitted by members in August 2004. But the current executive refused to convene a General Meeting until December ˆ nearly 4 months after the petition was submitted!
In addition, the current executive asked for „provincial resumption of bargaining‰ (which means an OSSTF take over of local contract negotiations) back in June 2004. They did this without holding any kind of meeting open to all members to elect their bargaining team, or to vote on contract issues and priorities.
The executive called, then cancelled two meetings (September 21 and October 4) of the local Collective Bargaining Committee (a committee of volunteers which any member has the right to join). Instead, now a hand-picked, executive-appointed CBC meets in secret.
Meanwhile, many members are hard pressed to make a living due to the decline in teaching assignments and the 50%-plus increase in the number of teachers on the OT secondary dispatch list.
By restoring the previous constitution, rank and file members will regain democratic control. Democracy will prevail through the mechanism of regular and more frequent General Meetings, through the direct election at General Meetings of the executive, the direct election of the bargaining team, and the direct election of OTBU representatives to a variety of internal and external bodies. Democracy will prevail through an open (non-censored) newsletter, and through the activation of OTBU standing committees, which will enable us to organize social events, P.D. seminars, union steward training and contract interpretation work shops, and many other beneficial activities.
2. The President and the entire Executive should be elected at a democratic Membership meeting, not via a dubious mail-in ballot procedure. Many problems occurred with mail-in balloting during the so-called contract ratification vote in November 2003. Hundreds of active members did not get ballots. There was no positive identification of voters. We don‚t know whether any person who voted, and who mailed in a ballot, was actually the member to whom the ballot was sent. The secrecy of the ballots was violated at OSSTF provincial office. Envelopes containing ballots were opened before scrutineers arrived for the official count. Scores of ballots were disqualified and were not counted.
In the mail-in vote for Executive in May 2004, barely 25% of the electorate voted, 66 ballots were disqualified, and the vote was preceded by OSSTF mailing out negative information about several of the candidates seeking office. It is unlikely that most of the voting members ever met, let alone questioned, most of the candidates seeking office. This problem does not arise at a direct, in-person vote at a General Meeting.
An election that is not based on the principle of an informed electorate, and an election that is not seen to be fair and clean, has little credibility.
3. The size of the Executive should be restored to fourteen (14) positions. The reduction to nine (9) decreases membership involvement and retards the development of new leaders. It leaves several of the eight TDSB dispatch zones without a designated executive member-at-large, thus reducing service, direct contact and support to members.
4. An unsuccessful candidate for office (for example, one who losses with 49% of the votes) should be able to run for other executive offices on a separate ballot. But under the current mail-in ballot procedure, a candidate defeated for a senior executive position would be able to run only for one other office, and to do so, would have to run in advance for both offices on the same ballot! This causes wasted votes, accidental acclamations, and massive confusion in the voting process. It keeps candidates with substantial membership support off the executive, thus depriving the union of the talent, energy and ideas they may offer.
Alternatively, direct voting at a membership meeting not only allows us to verify who the voters are; it fosters leadership accountability, and direct participation by members. Voting at a meeting is far less costly than voting by a mail-in ballot procedure; it is cleaner, swifter, more efficient, and far more democratic.
4. The Bargaining Team should be elected by the members at a general membership meeting where debate on bargaining issues can occur. The new constitution provides that our negotiators are appointed by an advisory group of volunteers known as the collective bargaining committee. Even worse is the fact that members no longer get to vote on the contract demands. The executive determines the demands package. And the Executive can circumvent the local CBC by applying prematurely for OSSTF provincial resumption of bargaining, as the Executive did in July 2004. General membership control of bargaining must be restored. That‚s what it will take to win back the rights and benefits we‚ve recently lost, especially the job security cap.
5. Representatives to TDSB Consultation Committee, Health and Safety Committees, Labour Council and other bodies should be elected by the membership, not appointed by the executive. The selection of our Health and Safety reps. should not be subject to the approval of the District 12 H&S committee, but should be exclusively the choice of the OTBU members.
6. Member grievances should not be subject to the approval or veto of a Grievance Officer (the First V.P.), or of a Grievance Appeals Committee consisting mostly of members of the Executive. Provincial OSSTF already has the power to veto or abandon grievances. The Executive should be dedicated to the support of members, and not be subservient to the priorities of the provincial office.
7. All important votes, elections and decisions should occur at General Meetings. The new constitution strips the General Meeting of most of its rights and duties. This can result only in a decline in attendance, and a withering of the local organization ˆ a trend considerably exacerbated by the reluctance of the current executive to convene timely and frequent General Meetings.
The new constitution is far less democratic than its predecessor. The new constitution was repeatedly promoted in the official OTBU newsletter. No contrary or critical opinions on the subject were published there. The new constitution was adopted at a meeting held under the intimidating circumstances of provincial OSSTF Trusteeship, convened at a very strange location, far from any secondary school in the TDSB, at a cost of over $1200. Why?
The original OTBU constitution served members well for over five years. Restore the democratic OTBU Constitution. Restore local democracy now by voting for Amendments #1 and #2.
Amendment #3
Proposed Constitutional Amendment to current Bylaw 1
Be It Resolved That the District 12 Secondary Occasional Teachers‚ Constitution be amended by deletion of Bylaw 1 - Supplementary Fees or Assessments.
(Moved by Chris Sojka, seconded by Barry Weisleder.)
Rationale for rescinding Bylaw 1:
Presently, the OTBU has a financial surplus of over $100,000* in the bank. The majority of members, on the other hand, have seen their work opportunities decline and their income plunge. We can ill afford a special levy of 50 cents a day. Those who control the OTBU now use our levy money to rent an apartment in a private residential building, that is, in a non-public location. They convene OTBU meetings at difficult-to-reach sites. Since OSSTF provincial office seized OTBU funds in October 2002, and even more so since Trusteeship was imposed on the OTBU in April 2003, the levy has not been used to benefit OTBU members. We are the poorer for it, financially and politically. The OTBU Special Levy generates funds excessive to our needs, contrary to our interests, and beyond what we can afford. It should be abolished now.
* This figure is an estimate owing to the lack of a Toronto OTBU financial report from the Executive or provincial OSSTF since May 2004.
Amendment #4
Proposed Constitutional Amendment to current Bylaw 3
Be It Resolved That the District 12 Secondary Occasional Teachers‚ Constitution be amended by addition to read as follows:
„Bylaw 3.3 A General Meeting may be called
„3.3.2 by fifty members upon request in writing to the Secretary, and in that event the General Meeting shall be held within 35 days of receipt of the request in writing.‰
(Moved by Barry Weisleder, seconded by Janine Carter.)
Rationale for Amendment to current Bylaw 3:
OTBU Bylaw 3.3.2 empowers members to petition for a General Meeting. Its intent is to facilitate a swift and timely convening of a General Meeting, especially when the OTBU Executive is reluctant to call a General Meeting and at least 50 OTBU members want one to be called as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the current Bylaw 3 does not state precisely when a meeting must be convened in response to such a petition -- notwithstanding the clear intent to empower members to compel a quick meeting call.
The OTBU Constitution requires 30 days notice to members of a General Meeting. This amendment, which would compel the executive to convene a meeting within 35 days (nearly two calendar months) following receipt of a petition by 50 or more members, gives the executive ample time (a full week) to issue the required notice.
The need for this amendment is demonstrated by the fact that such a petition was submitted on August 17, 2004, and the executive refused to convene a General Meeting on any date prior to December. A member‚s right to petition, and by so doing compel a constitutional course of action, is rendered meaningless if the body being petitioned has impunity to ignore or delay unduly its duty to comply with the intent of the constitution. This amendment will further clarify and reinforce the duty to comply.Remember, for accurate information, visit the new web site of the Toronto Substitute Teachers‚ Action Caucus at: https://www.angelfire.com/un/torontosubstitutes
Got an urgent concern?
Call the Substitute Teachers Help Line at: 416 - 588-9090
Contact Us: Hotline: 416 - 588 - 9090 | email: Substitute Teachers' Action Caucus