KUDOS TO OECTA (Teachers' Union)

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association are showing leadership and responsibility. The jig is up as far as special interest groups including teachers, doctors, nurses, police, firefighters etc.. While all of them are necessary and appreciated none of them walk on water. In fact overtaxed and underpaid private sector workers have had way more than enough. It's long past time that everybody shared in the difficult times we've been going through for years and which are forecast to get worse before they get better. Oh yes and my above list most certainly should include politicians who are by far the biggest pigs at the public trough. At least the other groups are generally on a daily basis helping society. Politicians are not; they are the experts at inequity and maintaining privelege for the monied elites.

Quoting Luisa D"Amato from her Opinion piece in the Record last Saturday (July 7/12) " When you take a look at the actual agreement between the Catholic teachers and the government, you see the work of teachers, not as a self-centred special interest group, but as the generous, student-centred professionals they are when at their best.". Monday's Waterloo Region Record also carried this major Editorial "Teachers' union sees reality". To date the other teachers' unions are rejecting the settlement that OECTA have accepted. Further details of the settlement are spelled out in this Editorial. I wonder at what point the other teachers' unions will realize that the only way they can have their cake and eat it to is to actually once in a very long while either be reasonable or even to make minor concessions. They have sucessfully bled the public treasury AND maintained the respect, goodwill and admiration of large segments of the public. OECTA whether out of honest public service or intelligent and far seeing self interest have realized that now is a really good time to be reasonable and more in order to maintain everything they've got. The alternative which the other teachers' unions need to realize is an angry public backlash resulting in a Conservative provincial government that would make them beg to have Mike Harris back!