By Dave McCreary
Brant public high school teachers this week joined fellow members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation in stepping up their fight against Bill 115, otherwise known as the Putting Students First Act.
On Monday, Ontario public high school teachers and support staff – including those working within the Grand Erie District School Board – began a boycott of extracurricular activities. Rotating one-day strikes are also underway in parts of the province, which we should expect to eventually reach Brant if labour unrest between teachers and the province continues. And it seems it will considering the current state of affairs between teachers and the government.
The extracurricular boycott means any activities not related to curriculum that teachers help facilitate – including sports, school plays, clubs and field trips – are off for the time being. Sadly, it seems students can count themselves among the first to pay a price for this ongoing labour dispute.
Of greatest concern to the teachers’ union is the fact that Bill 115 – currently being challenged in the courts by education unions – will give the education minister the power to impose contracts on teachers and support staff. That, they say, is a blatant attack on cherished collective bargaining rights that all Ontarians should have a right to.
“I think students and parents and the community members will understand that if we are not vigilant and don’t fight for our rights, these rights can be taken away with a stroke of a pen,” Leslie Wolfe, executive officer for the provincial executive of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, told Brant News last week.
We agree, the power to impose a contract does seem heavy-handed, but we’d like to think there might be a better way to fight Bill 115 than taking away extracurricular activities that students rely on to remain active, learn and become engaged members of their school and wider communities. Keeping the fight in the courts, as Premier Dalton McGuinty has suggested, seems a good idea to us.
In this week’s Brant News, some local students facing the cancellation of high school sports, club meetings and events say they feel cheated by their teachers’ job action. But feeling cheated by the extracurricular boycott hasn’t turned many students against their teachers. Instead, groups of students rallied against Bill 115 – and in support of their teachers – in front of Brantford high schools this week. If it not for Bill 115, the students say, teachers would not be forced into withdrawing support to extracurricular activities.
“It’s about standing up for ourselves and our staff and administration,” said Grade 10 BCI student Travis Swift. “I want to see a change. I don’t want to see this bill go into effect and affect our teachers and us. We want to take a stand and stop this from happening.”
North Park student athlete Courtney Lukawiecki said her fellow students are “pretty upset” about the way the labour dispute is unfolding.
“We are all trying to keep up with the news because we don’t want to be one-sided and get mad,” she said. “So we are trying to be understanding of it and get past that. And then we all are just hoping that we can get back on the court.”
We, too, want to see local high school athletes back on the court, local high school actors back on the stage and members of local high school clubs making a difference in their communities. But with the teachers’ union and provincial government both seemingly entrenched in their positions, we’re not confident that will happen anytime soon. And that’s a shame because Ontario students are caught in the middle.
Considering its impact on students, it’s time for the teachers’ union and provincial government to resolve this dispute. Because things getting worse before they get better would certainly not be in anyone’s best interest, especially Ontario’s students.
hmmmm seems students are more concerned with there sports than an actual education.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I have no intention of being rude by saying that is very ignorant of you.
Did you ever consider the fact that universities/colleges look for extra stuff like involvement in school sports? The fact that some students get sports scholarships? You say that as if it’s a bad thing as well, it’s good they’re showing so much concern for this. If all students were concerned about was their education, they’ll be robots. Students need to develop leadership and people skills as well. Education is important, but there are also many more things that are as important in a students life.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The teachers are still teaching courses at schools but the teachers are not going to volunteer to coach and manage sports teams and clubs after school during their fight with the McGuinty Ontario government and its Bill 115.
So why don’t parents get involved, volunteer and get their kids involved in sports and clubs in other ways?
How come everybody seems to think it must be the teachers who must volunteer?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I do believe that parents volunteering still need a staff member present while using the facilities. This is due to “liabilities”. Either that or a parent needs to carry insurance to cover any damage or injuries which may happen on the premises. It has been structured so…
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The McGuinty Ontario government wanted teachers to take a wage freeze. The unions and teachers said they would.
The biggest conflict seems to involve sick days. The teachers used to get 20 sick days per year. If they didn’t use them, they could bank them and get paid for up to 6 months banked sick days when teachers retired.
The government wanted to reduce the number of sick days to 10 per year without banking. The teachers disagreed. They wanted to negotiate but the McGuinty government passed legislation to impose conditions on teachers without bargaining and to ban teachers from striking for 2 years if the teachers didn’t like the imposed conditions.
When the biggest issue seems to have been about sick days not wages, does it really make sense that the McGuinty government had to pass draconian legislation to impose its conditions and get its way without bargaining?
If the teachers were willing take a wage freeze, surely the Ontario government could have negotiated, bargained and reached a deal on sick days without passing Bill 115, the legislation that has now led to so much unrest and disruption.
Such legislation over sick days leading to such disruption doesn’t make sense.
Something is sick.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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“When the biggest issue seems to have been about sick days not wages, does it really make sense”
But Gerry, bankable sick days are about wages – about extra one month’s salary per year.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The teachers union would have us believe that bill 115 is an attack on all of the working public in Ontario. If that is so, why did the Catholic elementary teachers settle for the exact same contract being offered to the public school teachers? Those working in the private sector can no longer afford to pay the grossly inflated wages of civil servants. In the private sector the average worker in Ontario is making the same or less then he or she did five years ago. In the public sector wages and benefits continually increase and there is a sense of entitlement. In the private sector wages and benefits have gone down. We cannot continue to sink further and further into debt. If it’s about students please remember they are someday going to have to pay down the debt Ontario is incurring to keep these teachers happy.
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