Union payouts under fire
Re Payouts to teachers unions, boards top $7M, Column Oct. 27 To suggest it is common practice for an employer to hand over millions of dollars to a union to do battle with them at the bargaining table is akin to suggesting the Leafs are on track to win the Stanley Cup this year. Both defy reality.
With more than 35 years representing employers at the bargaining table and negotiating with a multitude of national and international unions, I found that most employers cover the cost of lost wages for employees to attend the actual bargaining sessions and that is about it.
One has to realize that the union chose to represent these employees and they in turn pay union dues to be represented by the union. The employer was not part of this arrangement and for it to subsidize the union during negotiations contaminates the process and necessarily extends negotiations. Frank Feeley, Fonthill, Ont.
“And I’m really angry at the governments who made those payments for giving ammunition to the Conservatives to possibly pave the way to a Harris 2.0 government after the next election.” MICHAEL FARRELL OAKVILLE
I am a teacher in the Toronto District School Board in the secondary panel. What might come as a surprise is that I do not wholly disagree with the statements and opinions offered by Martin Regg Cohn. But for the sake of objectivity I would have hoped that he included some sort of proviso that the teachers have been left with so few options in the present bargaining climate that they have had to resort to these actions. I am aware that my working environment has been positively affected by the job and strike actions taken by the teachers who came before me. But in 2015 Ontario, a strike action by teachers has been made virtually illegal.
As a teacher who strongly believes in the English public education system of Ontario, I cannot go anywhere else. So yes, it may sound corny but we are fighting for education, even if that fight seems to be taking on some odd aspects. We have been left with no other option. Lindsay Farrow, Toronto Seek as one might, it is not easy to find out how much money was given to boards of education for negotiating expenses. The focus has fallen exclusively on what teachers’ unions got from government. This has fuelled bitter criticism of unions accepting “payback” for their support during elections, and visceral outrage at teachers who “hurt students and inconvenience families” through job action during protracted negotiations.
Not surprisingly, the spite hurled against teachers has completely eclipsed the money given to boards and drowned out government explanations for the payouts: the added costs of a new level of provincial negotiations imposed by the ministry over and above the old local negotiations.
This situation threatens not only to hurt public confidence in the school system, as Sachin Maharaj has argued, but also to undermine teachers’ professional credibility. The solution is painfully obvious: let the school boards and teachers’ unions openly declare what they received and promptly return it. Salvatore (Sal) Amenta, Stouffville, Ont. Excellent article by Sachin Maharaj but I would add a few “must happen soon” suggestions. The unions should give back the money they accepted from the government. I don’t think union members knew what was going on or would approve. Liz Sandals should resign. The recouped money should be put back into the education system to ensure the neediest students get the extra help they need. Thanks to the public school elementary teachers’ union for not accepting money from the government. I would like to see what final agreements were made with the other unions. Did they accept less because of their union accepting government money? School boards are funded by the taxpayers and all information regarding who gets what should be public. K. Wilson, Toronto As a taxpayer and former government of Ontario employee, I am appalled that my tax money (and that of millions of others) is going to unions. Worse still, there is no oversight as to how and on what it’s spent and no receipts required. I travelled frequently during my years working for the Ontario government and not once was I allowed to file for even a $5 expense without a receipt (nor should I have been). Having unions claim millions of dollars without receipts is ludicrous and leaves the process vulnerable to fraud. Rita Maio, Thornhill While it was appropriate to ask whether the unions submitted receipts, it is somewhat unfortunate that this issue was raised. It gives the premier and her spin doctors an opportunity to deflect from the real issue. The principal point here is that the payments were made or offered in the first place, receipts or not. The government is trying to make us believe that there were legitimate reasons for the payments. Obviously the government never believed that itself. Otherwise it would not have acted in complete secrecy. Alfhard Brandl, Mississauga I’m angry. I’m angry at the teachers’ unions for their duplicitous acceptance of secret payouts from Liberal governments. And I’m angry at those governments for making those secret, ethicsstretching payments. If they didn’t pass the smell test, why were they hidden all these years? And I’m really angry at the governments who made those payments for giving ammunition to the Conservatives to possibly pave the way to a Harris 2.0 government after the next election. Michael Farrell, Oakville Why is Liz Sandals still the minister of education? Any minster whose department has had so many problems ranging from minor to catastrophic over the same length of time would have been long gone and parked on one of the back benches or certainly banished to a portfolio where they can’t do much damage. Massive problems with the sex-ed curriculum, EQAO and more labour unrest among teachers and support staff unions than has been the case in decades, and Sandals still has the education portfolio? Andrew Frise, Orangeville, Ont.