More than 500 people rallied in protest last Friday at the office of Liberal MPP Chris Bentley. We gathered out of frustration that through the legislation of Bill 115, our TVDSB sick leave banks had been wiped out. We objected to losing the right to move toward full salary by acquiring experience and earning additional qualifications, a process that takes ten years, and even longer when you have not secured a full time contract. And those who are ETFO Teachers and Occasional Teachers were protesting the loss of an additional 1.5% of salary (because of 3 unpaid PA Days) on top of the 2% hit on salary we took from the Liberals four years ago. What salary freeze? Add inflation to the equation and the significance is glaring for these losses can never be regained and will forever impact our pensions.
We are not alone. Every Board employee will have their wages negatively affected by Bill 115 and duly elected Board trustees have been left powerless in the wake of this high-handed and unnecessary legislation.
So what are we to do? Many of us are participating in these rallies and many of our colleagues are expressing themselves by withholding extracurricular activities - volunteer work such as after school clubs, committees and sports activities.
Toronto Star Education Reporter, Louise Brown commented Tuesday, Sept. 18th:
"Wasn’t hard for me to explain it to my 9 year old: Doing after school activities is not part of the teachers’ jobs, and they don’t get paid for it. In Canada, luckily, no one can be forced to work for free. Your teachers volunteer to stay after work for free, because they love you guys. But right now they are mad at their employer, who they think is being mean and unfair to them. The only way they can show their employer that they are mad is to stop volunteering to spend their free time at work. They are not mad at the kids. They still love you guys. But sometimes in life you have to take a stand when you think someone is being mean to you." http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1257158--parents-scramble-to-explain-teacher-boycotts-to-their-children
