OSSTFing Up Negotiations in a New Political Paradigm

Shortly after the OSSTFs most recent contract ratification announcement, I had a conversation with one of the federations negotiators. I was bemoaning the state of the contract while said negotiator was explaining that this deal will work for us because this contract establishes a better starting point (over Bill 115s imposed contract) for the next round of negotiations in 2014. I was troubled by this statement. I seem to recall our starting point for negotiations being significantly awesome prior to this contract and we managed to lose a tonne. And I cant, for the life of me, figure out why the federation thinks the government will negotiate in good faith next time.

For Starters....An Assumption.

In its most recent foray into contract negotiating, the OSSTF, completely and unequivocally lost. I know (a few) people will disagree, but If, over a year ago, you had told the teachers of Ontario that they would settle for a contract that would: eliminate gratuities and bankable sick days; delay grid steps; freeze salaries for who knows how long; see the implementation of unpaid days off; introduce mandatory Long Term Disability Insurance and that we would ratify such a deal with a previously unheard of provincial cyber- vote (abandoning the long-stated significance of local bargaining) I think the aforementioned teachers of Ontario would have contorted their faces uncomfortably and replied with absurd. And then, upon telling them that they would never strike and they would abandon their collective action against extra-curriculars a full month before a such a deal was reached, which coincidentally was around the time the president of their union would be seen on the evening news warmly embracing the minister of education, they would have fallen to the ground in a shock of clinically worrisome proportions. I think one mere year ago, this would have been beyond the worst case scenario. This doesnt even consider the fact that our new deal has pushed the Hudakians so far right that they are talking about setting the labour movement back to pre-industrialization or that the pension has abandoned guaranteed Cost Of Living Adjustments. The Argentines, who can still recall the Falkland Islands, now scoff with disdain and shake their collective heads at the High School teachers of Ontario because we were routed. Now I am not really one for war metaphors, because war is way more tragic than just about anything to which it could be compared. However, the OSSTF, in its hubris, will point to a couple of casualties on the other side of no mans land. Bragging about taking down the Premier and Education Minister rings hollow when we lost so much of what we had previously, and fairly, collectively bargained. Yes, yes we all know D. Mac wore it hard, and Broten will soon be nothing more than an Elizabeth Witmer-esque footnote, yay us!! Have we forgotten that we lost our gratuity payouts while Mr. McGuinty will collect over $300 000 in a severance package, which to me, sounds a lot like a gratuity by another name....I guess it was too much to hope for the OSSTF to lose the way Dalton did.

Heres the Problem (In Verse)

We were the cattle, the negotiating table was our slaughter house. We were the Soviets, this was our moon-race. We were the donut, they were Homer Simpson. We were the Euro, they were Greece.

(In Prose)
It wasnt a fair fight. The negotiators had zero chance of success, and by definition a fair fight involves some likelihood for success. It simply wasnt a fair fight, but it could have, and should have, been. Governments, including ours, have figured out how to tame the school yard bully of labour unions and thats simply by changing the rules; opting to use legislation and public relations instead of negotiations. And while I agree with many who suggest a complete work stoppage or a continued long term ban on extra-curriculars would have likely made a difference, thats a different conversation. The landscape has changed dramatically over the past few decades. The Government of Ontario no longer cares about negotiating and they frankly arent all that interested in occupying the moral high ground of doing whats best for education or for its work force. Depending on the direction of the political wind, they either seek to buy teachers votes by playing nice or they seek to win the rest of the electorate by vilifying teachers and unions in general. Every round of negotiations for at least the past 25 years falls into one of these two categories. Heck, D. Mac even chose to go with four year contracts in the education sector, making negotiations work for the election cycle (am I the only one who thinks the Liberals wanted a two year deal in this round so they could decide whether to buy us or vilify us before the next election - assuming they had won that much drooled over minority by taking Conservative Kit-Wats by-election?).

So Whats a Little Union To Do About It?

We need to play the game differently. This battle needs to be fought on three fronts, currently we only fight on two. While I think picket signs and protest lines are valuable, I do not think that they alone will take us to the Promised Land. And the backroom politicking helps, but $30 000 worth of donations bought us exactly one week of mat-leave and some solid-like-quicksand promises about maybe thinking before the Ministry of Education completely revamps the salary grid. We have to starting fighting on the third front, the much feared public relations front. Yes I said it. We need to take the fight to the politicians on their turf because they are not going to pull a Marty McFly and come back to the seventies. So we had better hit the fast forward button on the eight-track machine and meet them on their playground. One of my frustrations over the years has been when I hear teachers and/or union leaders say that we as a collective cannot beat the governments PR/Media machine. That is completely baffling to me, the government is not very good at managing the message (cite your favourite of many examples over the past 18 months). A cadre of 10 to 15 political Dr. Frankensteins sitting around Mowat Block cannot possibly overwhelm an army of historians, scientists, literature majors, artists, mathematicians, athletes, computer experts, et al. And we have to own that and walk, nay, we have to strut into negotiations like we know it.

Some Priorities (to be developed in a future article)

The idea of an intellectual army comprised of teachers brings me to my first point; the federation must do a better job of engaging its membership and mine the expertise and insight of the classroom teacher. An organization will never exceed the limitations of its ideas, so we need to consider as many ideas as possible in our efforts to reach the voting public (who ultimately will dictate the approach the politicians take with us). Repair the OSSTFs credibility crisis. The fact that the voting public respects politicians statements about education more than the opinions of educators is a problem of immeasurable significance. And the government knows this. Collectively, teachers are seen as a group of slacker summer-loving selfinterested pseudo professionals. Individually, teachers are heroes. This inconsistency needs to be fixed. We need to be seen as defenders of students and of education. No government of any political stripe in Finland would ever dare trade in bashing teachers, we need to learn from the teachers who have won the respect of their nations (especially in light of Ontario being the highest achieving educational jurisdiction in the English speaking world). Focus on the issues that matter. The government gave the public a simple narrative about entitled teachers living the privileged life and taking the summer off. The OSSTF gave the public an obscure narrative about freedom of assembly and labour law. We should have been focusing on the governments move to an American style education system and its attack on the middle class. (Is there a more middle class profession than teaching?) And despite the naysayers we can win the public relations battle. We have to win. The stakes are too high, and education matters too much.

Rob Scott June 12, 2013