Even though teachers’ compensation has increased by 25 per cent since he was elected in 2003 and working conditions have improved with smaller class sizes and higher test scores, McGuinty says he appreciates why they are angry that he’s freezing their pay and curbing their collective bargaining rights.
“I understand where teachers are coming from. They’ve got their own household budgets, they’ve made plans to . . . manage their own home finances and then this guy McGuinty comes along and says we’ve got to hit the pause button for a couple of years,” he said.
As has been his tradition for years, the premier on Tuesday marked the first day students are back by paying a visit to a school.
But because the Liberal government is at war with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, he toured a French-language school.
Speaking to reporters at École élémentaire Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau, whose teachers belong to a union that has settled its contract, McGuinty reminded educators he hasn’t changed.
“We’re the same government, we’re the same people and in the same way we’re absolutely devoted to publicly funded education. We’ve been hit by this terrible recession; we’ve got this deficit,” he said, referring to the $14.8-billion shortfall.
“I’m proud of our teachers and I know that we’ve hit a bit of rough patch and that’s not unusual when it comes to if you see what happens in . . . periods of economic constraint,” the premier said.
“Teachers understand we’ve got to make a bit of a choice and either put more money into pay hikes or we can put more money into expanding full-day kindergarten and keeping class sizes small, which, by the way, hangs onto teachers’ jobs.”
Last week, some 5,000 teachers descended on Queen’s Park to protest McGuinty ramming through legislation that would drastically limit their rights to collective bargaining for two years.
Many in the crowd booed, jeered and chanted “liar, liar” whenever McGuinty’s name was mention during the demonstration.
The Liberal legislation would freeze teachers’ pay — except for seniority grid movement — impose three unpaid days off, halve the number of annual sick days to 10, and stop unused sick days from being banked and cashed out at retirement.
In the legislature, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak grilled McGuinty on why he has brought in a law to end bankable sick days for teachers, but won’t do so for firefighters — whose professional association has long been a staunch Liberal ally — and other public servants.
“Isn’t it time to end this practice, where, for example, firefighters can cash in sick days they’ve not used, to the tune of $50,000?” Hudak asked.
McGuinty noted the government has already scrapped the sick day retirement payouts for Ontario Provincial Police officers and would leave it to the “abiding wisdom” of municipalities how to deal with the firefighters they employ.
Hudak, whose party supports the Liberals on the education bill, charged that argument is “just slippery” because local school boards employ teachers, not the provincial government.
“Why is it good for teachers but not good for firefighters?”
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) said such legislation is “simplistic and unconstitutional” because workers’ rights are being trampled upon.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson
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