Building Union Power

Helen Victoros

for President

Dear ETT Members,

I am running for ETT President; I ask for your support.

In these pandemic years of shutdown, virtual, pivots, and hybrid, your working conditions have changed radically.

Outrageously…
The Ford government sat on billions meant for schools, and other female dominated public sector services, deepening systemic inequities in your classrooms and communities.

The TDSB expected you to stopgap these deficiencies, escalating workload, diminishing supports in guidance and special education, and your time to prepare.

No more.

You deserve a Union leadership that will rise to the challenges you experience with vision, strength, passion, and action.

As your President, backed by 11 years Executive, 4 years Chief Negotiator, and 10 years classroom experience, I will work with the ETT Team and you, for a Union that demands better and builds the power to win.

Action Plan:

Lead the fight for a collective agreement that confronts decades of cuts and downloads.
Invest in steward/all member training on the issues that matter and the strategies that win.
Publicize your working conditions/your students’ learning conditions through regular research-backed, high participation campaigns.
Strengthen parent/community/labour alliances for socially just, anti-racist, equitable schools and communities.

Vote Helen Victoros for ETT President

Nigel Barriffe

for Vice-President

It’s time to respect teachers.

With society reopening, we must REbuild a Union that is present and actively supporting our members, both new and experienced, in the important jobs they do every day. We need a union committed to bringing back the supports we need in each school: guidance councillors, social workers, special education workers and psychologists.

As ETT members we have experienced deep frustration and anxiety over the past two years. We made sure the school system worked even when we lacked resources, and cared for our own children while teaching remotely.

While ETT represents every single one of us, it doesn’t always feel that way. When decisions are made without the input of all members, that hurts our collective voice.

We must continue to fight for smaller class sizes and against conditions that offload work onto teachers.

Our union must be active in the political arena, so as to ensure that principles of equity and social justice are at the heart of public education.

I will:

Coordinate effective public relations campaigns that foster parent/community support
Continue to strongly advocate for you
Increase public awareness of challenges in the classroom

Vote Nigel Barriffe for ETT Vice-President.

Laura McCoy

for Executive Officer

I am fighting for a strong, well-funded public education system with the best learning conditions for students, and the best working conditions for teachers.

Years of cuts have resulted in large classes, diminished supports, violent incidents, and crumbling schools. The pandemic has further eroded our working conditions and left so many of us stressed and anxious
every single day.

It doesn’t need to be this way.

We, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, must come together, organized and united, to fight for public education. We have taught through a pandemic and now must rise to the challenge of building up our education system together.

Over 20 years of classroom teaching and union involvement gives me the knowledge and experience to serve members of ETT with compassion, strength and integrity. Our classroom experiences must be front and centre at the union table as we move forward. As a founding member of the Ontario Education Workers United I have fought for strong, well-funded, safe and equitable public education. I will bring this energy and drive to support our union, amplifying all members’ voices as we move into another bargaining year!

Vote for Laura McCoy!

Jonathan Giles

for Executive Officer

Enough is enough!

The last two years have been intolerable for teachers. Our working conditions have degraded rapidly since this pandemic began. As a Regional Organizer and former Steward, I hear over and over again that members are feeling abandoned, and that we’ve been left to navigate the worst parts of this pandemic alone.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s restore our profession and our union power!

There is a way forward. As an Executive Officer, I will push locally and provincially to:

Ensure “No Hybrid” becomes part of our collective agreement
Deal with the root causes of our missed preparation time
Push for pay raises commensurate with inflation

I’ve been a committee chair, trained as an organizer, and mobilized during strike actions as a member of our political action committee. As an executive member of another union, I helped mobilize 2,500 members to defeat Wynne’s net-zero wage increases through organizing and solidarity, securing a raise for our members.

Most of all, this executive needs the voices of teachers who know what it’s like to teach through this pandemic. We know what’s at stake.

Vote for Jonathan Giles for Executive Officer.

Elizabeth So

Throughout the pandemic, we were abandoned by our leaders and left to fend for ourselves. We were overworked in the before-times but with the pandemic, our workload and stress levels hit new highs.

Teachers are resilient and so we adapted. We supported each other. But our leaders did not support us. Instead of amplifying the activities that were working like virtual communities, our leaders told us to cease-and-desist, put our trust in yet another strongly worded letter, or wear red. They had no plan or clear strategy to make our lives better.

And while our leaders watched from the sidelines, launching only one major campaign in two years, our health was jeopardized; we lost guidance counsellors, central staff were reassigned, jobs were unfilled, preps lost, and many were forced into teaching hybrid.

Only a strong, unified union that has the interests of its members FIRST can change the quality of our working conditions. It starts with a plan for on-the-ground organizing, school-by-school, member-by-member. It looks like a union that doesn’t stand in the way of its members but brings the best forward. We can’t endure mediocrity anymore.

Vote for me. Vote for a plan: let’s build union power.

Your Candidates

Helen Victoros

for President

Nigel Barriffe

for Vice-President

Laura McCoy

for Executive Officer

Jonathan Giles

for Executive Officer

Elizabeth So

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