Ontario Adult Education Information Network

It pays to find out who your chief negotiator is and have a polite exchange with them. I found out who my chief negotiator was, and knowing there was a wage discrepancy between Adult Ed here and the Catholic educators in the same area as ours, I reuqested wage parity with them. She agreed quicker than I thought. So, a 20% wage increase is on the table. Sweet. I will still need to see it on my paycheque in September.

But it pays to just go out there and do things. I advise anyone reading this that if you are in Adult Ed, make sure your own local knows you exist. Speak to people at the OSSTF District level. Find out who represents you if you don’t know. This is where I had to start from. But someone has to get the ball rolling. And if it is you, then so be it. This might even be your first semester teaching. But with your humble and imperfect tools, try to make a difference. The only thing worse than doing something is doing nothing.