Those people who said that there's a lot of rhetoric in this round of bargain, that Sam

Hammond's spreading rhetoric all over the place, tat Sam Hammond is directing the course

of this round of bargaining. My friends, you've just showed everyone that you and you always

have, directed me, and this union on your behalf and thank you for that.

Listen I want you to know something, our brother Jim Iker was here, the president of the British

Columbia Teachers' Federation, you gave him a standing ovation for the stand that they

took in British Columbia, had to leave this morning. I want you to know that he sent me

a text he wanted me to share with you, he has on, as he's traveling back to BC he has

on our BARGAINING FOR THE FUTURE, RESPECTING OUR PAST t-shirt.

Delegates, friends, sisters and brothers, I am so very honoured to once again serve

this Federation as your President. Your confidence in me and the members of our provincial Executive

that you have elected has sent a very important message.

That is, that the 78,000 members of ETFO have always, and will continue to stand up for

our past and our future, our members of the past, the teaching profession, and the future

of student learning conditions in Ontario. Your

show of support with your sea of red T-shirts with our bargaining theme on them "Bargaining

for The Future, Respecting Our Past" makes that very loud and very clear. Our bargaining

colour red going into the future once again. Listen, parents and the government know that

our highly qualified members are what make our public education system one of the strongest

in the world. And that these members understand what is needed to give their students the

best education - every day, in every class, and for every student.

That's why the Liberal government's education policy is based on the promise that outstanding

education systems support teacher professional judgment and our members.

You know that. Parents know that. And yet for six months we have been faced with a list

of contract strips from the Ontario Public School Boards' Association and that has not

changed. These strips would erode teacher professionalism

and the ability for them to use professional judgment when providing instruction to our

students. I'm going to tell you right now, that will never happen and we will never agree

to that. As I said on Monday, for six months, the government

has stood silently by and done nothing, nothing to stop this brash attempt to control every

classroom at the expense of every teacher. These demands are not about, not at all about

improving education for our students. They are about increasing management rights and

a desire for control. Period. End of the conversation.

Our student learning conditions should not be and will not be impacted in this way. Nor

should our education system be weakened by the disrespect that OPSBA has shown for the

working conditions of our members that we bargained over several decades. Should we

allow our education system to be weakened by:

Interference with the preparation time teachers need to plan lessons and prepare specialized

plans for students? Have teachers to do more testing and less

teaching? Allow them to take DECES, ESPs and PSPs away

from their classroom responsibilities with students to do non-classroom tasks? That's

it. And allowing principals the 'flexibility'

to pass over qualified, experienced educators for classroom positions? Not going to happen.

It's not going to happen on my watch. Many of these demands undermine education

policies, regulations and programs developed by the Liberal government, the very government

that has stood by silently at the bargaining table for the last six months.

That just doesn't make sense and it will never make sense.

I say shame on them both for their continued attacks on the profession, the professionalism

of our members, and our outstanding publicly funded, public education system.

That is why at the end of the day, ETFO's 76,000 members began an administrative work-to-rule

strike action in May of this year. Our members will have been without a contract

for one year on August 31st. As you know, we have agreed to return to the bargaining

table on September the first. That is all the more reason for ETFO to keep up the pressure,

as you have done this annual meeting, to ensure that there is movement at that central table.

Movement towards a fair collective agreement that respects our members' working conditions

and students' learning conditions. We know today that our colleagues in OSSTF

have reached a tentative deal. That's great. Congratulations to our colleagues at OSSTF.

This may be a small sign that the government and OPSBA are finally beginning to recognize

the importance of resolving issues prior to the start of the school year. Given our past

experience, we WILL be prepared for anything and everything on September the first.

Sisters and brothers, I want to say at this point on this item, that we have worked in

solidarity with everyone. We will always work in solidarity with whoever we need to. We

will continue to move forward in that direction.

But I want you to know that as we go through this, that the people that I , the executive

and your provincial bargaining team, rely on, the people that we turn to, the people

that we trust are our family- You, and our 78,000 members across this province.

Straight up: Things must change at our central bargaining table in order for ETFO to reach

a deal. Our provincial Executive and you have determined that we will stay on course and

we will begin a Phase 2 work-to-rule in addition to the current administrative strike action

that we implemented in May. I want to highlight just a few of those components. Effective

the first working day of the 2015-16 school year,

ETFO members will:

will NOT participate in any field trips

will NOT participate in fundraising activities

will NOT perform or participate in any activities, meetings or training related to School or

Board Improvement Plans

they will NOT participate in board professional development

NOT respond to any electronic communication from the principal or vice principal outside

of the instructional day except where the safety of students is involved

and our members will NOT take on principals' duties by acting as Teacher Designate or Teacher-in-Charge

at any time

You know, while there will be no field trips until our issues are addressed in bargaining,

we will not at this time ask our members to stop their voluntary extra-curricular activities.

But I want to be very clear. This is Phase 2, and if we cannot get a deal at that table

and get it sooner rather than later, as I said on Monday, OPBSBA, Liberal government:

You are in for the fight of your lives. Thanks so much. Anyone who says I control

you needs to be here. Listen, all of the information around Phase

2 will be coming out later this afternoon. It will also be posted on our Union Collective

Bargaining website at www.etfocb.ca this afternoon. As I told you on Monday I've invited all of

our local presidents and chief negotiators to discuss our plans for collective action

in much more detail on September 14th and I look forward to that.

Along with our Phase 2 work-to-rule, our focus will be activism outside of our schools and

classrooms. Thousands of you, as I said on Monday, traveled to Collingwood for the Liberal

and the OPSBA annual meeting. Our members have been without a collective

agreement for an entire year. You have been without an agreement for an entire year. There

are many ways that we can speak with one voice about this unacceptable situation. You have

been, and you will, and I know that you will continue to do just that. One way is through

social media. I'm asking all ETFO members to join me on

Twitter to send a Thunderclap message to this Liberal Government and to OPSBA on August

31st. You'll be sent information next week by CB eNewsletter about how you can be part

of our Thunderclap message. In September, we will be rallying and picketing

outside Liberal MPP offices and school boards in every corner of the province.

And if we still can't arrive at a fair, negotiated settlement, we are going to descend, all 78,000

of us, on Queen's Park during that same month. In short, together, we are sending the message

to the government and OPSBA, and education stakeholders that ETFO members will never

allow the erosion of our members' working conditions.

Because as you all know in this room, teacher working conditions are student learning conditions.

And if you erode working conditions, it immediately and directly

impacts learning conditions.

Let me be clear, my friends. ETFO has remained ready and willing to negotiate fair collective

agreements for our members. But I say to the Liberal government and OPBSA. You must come

to your senses and get serious about bargaining a fair collective agreement - for the future

of our members and the future of our students in this province.

Everyone in this room, and our 78,000 members understand this necessity. And we are prepared

to stand firm and stand united in this goal, today in this room, over the past three days,

and in September and every month coming after, in every public elementary school across the

province. I know that you are prepared to stand up for what is right. You do it every

single time that you are called upon. You have my heartfelt thanks for that.

And my friends, to close, we will do this together. Our members, every one of our 78,000

members, need to hold their heads high. They are the heart and soul of one of the best

public education systems in the world, and we will do what we need to do to protect them,

our students' learning conditions, and our collective agreement. Thank you.

Thanks so much. Wow, I have the best family in the world.

Listen, I want to turn now to what we would normally do at this time- Wow, from the bottom

of my heart- I can't thank you enough. You're amazing.

Listen, so I want to turn now to the tremendous exercise of democracy that we have been engaged

in over the last three days at this Annual Meeting.

I want to thank you, all of you, for your attendance and your participation in the debate,

the very respectful, and thoughtful, and great debate that we have had on this floor, and

in the process determining the direction of our Federation for the next short while. This

democracy, that very transparent and accountable democracy is what makes our Federation so

strong. You know, the tone of the debates this year

was extremely respectful. This is thanks to you, and thanks to the skills of our amazing

parliamentarians. You know there's only one person that scares

me at a microphone, and that's Ruth Ann Morley. Listen, you just did, Ruth, Wulf, Doris, Yolanda,

thank you so very much. You just did- you are doing, an amazing job on our behalf.

I'm going to tell you, it says in my speech here that this morning we passed our budget,

enabling - well we haven't done that yet, we will get to that.

You know, bargaining was at the top of everyone's mind this week, we debated some important

aspects about the ongoing work of our Federation and our long term future.

One of which was our commitment, our solid and unwavering committment to equity.

Equity work requires planning, commitment and continual reflection. It involves taking

concrete steps to remove barriers and create inclusion.

We have always been leaders in fighting these battles, and we've always walked the talk.

With our Transgender Policy, we have also taken a historic step to align our Federation

with the Ontario Human Rights Policy on gender identity and gender expression. More importantly,

this policy will help ensure that transgender members are welcomed, respected and provided

full rights and protections within our union and our workplaces because it's the right

thing to do. Delegates, you also voted to endorse the Truth

and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Report and its 94 recommendations and thanks so much

for that. Moving forward, we will provide a forum for members to learn more about how

the recommendations impact educators in the public education system. And we will not,

not for one minute, ever forget about our First Nations, Metis and Inuit brothers and

sisters in this country and we will do everything, everything to support them into the future.

So, if this is your last annual meeting and you will admit it, I'd ask you to please stand

and be recognized by the delegates of this Annual Meeting.

We all respect and appreciate everything that you have done for us, and it's an honour for

us to continue on in your footsteps and good luck to each of you.

So, long with our committed local leaders, dedicated committed local leaders, our Federation

is lucky to have, and has always been fortunate to work with, a strong provincial leadership

team as we enter into the next phase of bargaining. I'm going to ask- we went through an amazing

process, an election process, and I'm going to ask now, that the new Executive to join

me here on stage. First Vice-president : Susan Swackhammer

Vice-presidents : Nancy Lawler and Karen Brown OTF Table Officer: Diane Dewing

Executive Members: Tracy Blodgett

Gail Bannister-Clarke Kelly Holley

Monica Rusnak Debi Wells

Adelina Cecchin ? Nathan Core

David Mastin Greg Weiler

I'm excited, I'm so excited to work with this new provincial leadership team on your behalf.

I'm going to ask them to stay up with me because we're going to be doing everything together

for the next two years. Those who are newly elected, I said I hope that you told your

spouse, your partner, that I have you for two years and they're never going to see you.

Listen, our theme for this year's annual meeting was Bargaining for the Future, Respecting

Our Past We owe it to all of those who came before

us to continue this fight for our members, our profession and for the future of public

education in this province.

Our members have been central every step of the way and we will continue to rely on your

passion and commitment to our profession. You have made our public education system

one of the strongest in the world, and it will be you - through our unified collective