(Niagara At Large is posting this media release from teacher unions in Ontario in the wake of the March 27 budget from the provincial government, calling on teachers to accept at two year wage freeze, and calling on them accept some compromises with respect to their benefits, including having them pay more into their pensions in order to reduce the amount the pensions are topped up by Ontario taxpayers across the board.)
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' president Ken Coran
Toronto – When Minister Duncan introduced his budget today (March 27), he referred to contract negotiations in the education sector and said, “if no agreement can be struck to protect Ontario’s progress in education and health care, we are prepared to propose necessary administrative and legislative measures to protect the public from service disruptions…Respect will be our watchword when it comes to these negotiations. Respect for our public-sector partners. Respect for the collective bargaining process.”
Ken Coran, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), responded that “today’s budget is not about respect and it threatens to undo eight years of collaboration, open dialogue and progress in education.”
OSSTF/FEESO shares the government’s view that education is the best investment in Ontario’s future. We also agree that partners meeting collaboratively to tackle difficult issues is the best way to create successful outcomes. However, for the first time, an Ontario budget threatens collective bargaining rights.
For the first time, an Ontario budget threatens the most successful public pension plan in the world, one that is controlled by a joint partnership agreement. These actions do not equate to respect and collaboration. They undermine and demoralize.
Coran concluded, “We have seen that imposing legislation upon workers, and not negotiating with them in good faith, leads only to further discontent and distrust. I call upon the government to honour what it has stated about the collective bargaining process – respect it and the workers who make Ontario’s education system one of the best in the world.”
OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.
Contact: Ken Coran, Presisident, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, 416.751.8300 or 1.800.267.7867
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Niagara At Large 
The Ontario sunshine list grew by 10% in 2011 ( Approximately 79,000 civil “servants” NOW enjoy life as members of the $100,000 club) and the truth of this statement is “this is unsustainable”. The hard earned social fabric of this province and all of Canada has and is suffering as the gap between the haves and have-nots continues to grow unchecked by proponents who feel a “Creed of Entitlement” and to heck with those who are not on the “gravy train”
In 2002 Niagara Health Services had approximately 33 or 34 employees in the fabled $100,000 Club with one only Registered Nurse claiming membership.
In 2011 the NHS’s $100,000 Club grew to over 200 at a cost to the taxpayers of over $26 Million Dollars (Over 100 RNs + over a dozen Charge Nurses and two Nurse Practitioners are in the club along with many directors, Managers and of course the administration where the cost cause was basically overtime.
Why so much overtime is the question that should be front and center for Mr. Smith?
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All this money on wages and benefits just in Niagara alone, yet our Health System is broken and bodies stacking up like cordwood. the people are scared stiff to go to hospital for even a routine medical problem, and if you don’t live in the Falls or St.Catharines you can’t get to a Hospital.Dalton Mc.Guinty keeps telling me he has done a great job, I think the man is in denial and must live in another dimension.or plain stupid.
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