KUDO's for OSSTF President Ken Coran, in fight with Ontario government

No parents' nights, no attendance reports, no pre-test preparation for EQAO testing, no supervision of EQAO testing, individual choice on extra-curricular activities...these measures are both real and necessary in the OSSTF fight with the Ontario government's "Putting Students First Act" which strips collective bargaining and freezes wages and benefits.
This is not only a fight between a provincial government that is strapped for cash and a public sector union. It is a line drawn in the sand over the legitimate rights of labour, at all levels, in Canada. Those rights, and the benefits that have been won over decades of struggle, protest, heated argument and even protracted legislative battles are under fire, not only in the specific case of Ontario teachers, but across the land.
And the public now has to come to the support of Ontario teachers, for their benefit of their student-children, but also for the benefit of the Canadian way of life that is under attack, in Ottawa, in Toronto, and in all provincial capitals.
We commend the leadership of the OSSTF, and in particular Ken Coran, the current president, for the courage and the tenacity and the leadership he is showing in this fight.
OSSTF is neither a radical nor a narcissistic organization. It's history is filled with more contract settlements by far than labour disputes.
But this time the government has gone too far and there must be a line drawn beyond which no public sector union will move.
Of course, we also support the legal challenge to the provincial legislation, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the resulting judgement, probably eventually from the Supreme Court, will do much to show the direction in labour negotiations for both public and private sector workers over the next decade.
Ontario high school teachers to ‘up the heat’ in row with province

By Alex Consiglio, Toronto Star, October 26, 2012
Ontario high school teachers are planning to “up the heat” in negotiations with the government by taking job action, including not talking to parents or administering standardized tests.

Ken Coran, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said Friday he’s instructed some 60,000 OSSTF members, who are in a legal strike position, also to cease attending staff meetings by Nov. 7.
“We’re fed up and want there to be serious talks” said Coran. “We’ve got solutions and the government has to take ownership of new ideas.”
The next standardized EQAO tests for high school students begin in January, when Grade 9 students will be tested on mathematics, followed by literacy tests in April for Grade 10 students.
Students must pass the Grade 10 literacy test in order to graduate.
The job action also instructs teachers not to participate in activities involved in the standardized tests, which may include in-class preparation.
“It’s designed not to impact students’ learning,” said Coran, explaining he doesn’t see the tests as part of the defined curriculum. Coran suggested supervisors can gather students in school cafeterias and administer the EQAO tests there themselves.
Coran said it hadn’t been discussed yet whether in-class EQAO preparation would be affected.
Education Minister Laurel Broten responded to the aggressive move by the OSSTF by email Friday.
“It is very concerning to me to see that OSSTF is prepared to take these strike actions,” said Broten. “We need all of our partners in education to work with us to find solutions that put the success of our students — including EQAO and literacy tests — first.”
Broten added the Putting Students First Act, a new anti-strike law that cuts benefits and freezes the wages of senior teachers, allows the government to intervene through regulation, not legislation, if teachers take such action.
“At this point, we are monitoring closely to see how local unions operationalize job actions and will assess options,” said Broten.
Coran scoffed at Broten’s suggestion teachers can be regulated through the Act to resume such duties.
“If (the Act’s) even legal,” quipped Coran, whose union is among three others that claims it infringes on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees of Ontario, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the OSSTF and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) have launched a legal challenge against the Act.
ETFO president Sam Hammond has also taken job action and advised some 76,000 elementary teachers to write only the bare minimum on report cards.
Broten met with Hammond earlier this week to see if he would rescind the advice, but he wouldn’t back down. Hammond could not be reached for comment Friday.
Coran said the OSSTF job action will also see teachers stop communicating with parents outside of the regular school day, putting an end to parent-teacher nights.
Local bargaining units may also instruct teachers to stop submitting student attendance or participating in curriculum or course writing.
Coran added the job action wouldn’t affect extracurricular activities, like sports teams, where teachers have been instructed to make individual choices whether to continue or not. High schools teachers in Toronto have been urged by their union local to keep running extracurriculars because they are important for kids.
Rattled by the unions' declaration of war, the Liberals are trying to mend fences with the labour groups whose financial and organizational support helped get them re-elected over the past nine years.
Premier Dalton McGuinty bought time for the Liberals to repair that relationship when he prorogued the legislature last week to allow for a "cooling off period" that would give them time to negotiate.
Coran said it’s time “for the volume to be turned up” in the negotiations, which continue until Dec. 31.
“It just blows my mind that the government can’t realize there’s more than one way to solve a problem,” said Coran. “It’s what we teach our students and maybe it’s time for the government to practice higher order thinking.”