Improving publicly funded education through conversation

by Bill Hewitt & Mary Fraser-Hamilton 

OSSTF/FEESO members have a natural affinity for being compassionate and caring individuals. We live this daily for our students, schools, and worksites. We have discussions and create plans to support and engage the students we serve. But when the topic changes to how we support one another in the union, the conversation gets more difficult, and gazes turn towards the floor.

We hear “public education in Ontario is under attack under Doug Ford!” as a refrain to raise members’ ire and start union conversations. A 2018 article by Ricardo Tranjan in the Monitor revealed that the Ontario government has decreased spending by $1,500/student. This is a huge number with staggering systemic impacts. The question becomes: how do we approach system underfunding and build solidarity in the Federation and ultimately in the greater community?

The answer is together, through conversation. Every member of OSSTF/FEESO experiences this underfunding in their workplace daily. We see it through low staffing numbers that lead to dangerous situations for educational assistants (EAs) and other support staff groups, unacceptable wait times for speech and language pathologists, ballooning class sizes for teachers, and crumbling daycare centres. We need to use our experiences to raise the alarm bells about publicly funded education in Ontario. We must talk to our colleagues about our experiences and build the solutions together.

To promote publicly funded education in Ontario, we need to have conversations about the problems we face and take action on solutions to fix them. Teachers and education workers need to humanize the crisis in the system and point to solutions. We do that by telling our stories and making the problems workers and students experience real and tangible. This is how we help the general public recognize and support the vital role public education plays in building strong communities.

Union organizers have a strategy for these conversations that is tactical and focused on a goal: moving their co-workers towards taking collective action and building worker power. These conversations aren’t chit-chats, gripe sessions, or therapy. They are solutions-focused, galvanizing, action-spurring conversations that happen as many times as necessary until a person is secure in their power.

These steps to organizing conversations were a training component at the inaugural OSSTF/FEESO Organizing Institute in spring 2024. By engaging in these discussions with our colleagues, we set them up to have deeper conversations in their own communities—conversations that will change hearts and minds and that will lead to greater advocacy for public education. The steps shared below allow labour activists and grassroots organizers to turn problems into solutions.

Check-in

Union representatives have always relied on one-on-one conversations as a basic tenet to support members at their worksite. Often, this is done best by worksite reps where personal connections can be made naturally.

Making connections with one another helps us know each other’s concerns and what we care about. Union leaders must identify a member’s position on a particular issue and what is important to them. Listening is critical in this first part of the conversation as the member is the expert on their issue.

Once you have done a check-in and identified the problem you can move on to the second phase of the conversation.

Focus and empower

To highlight an issue to organize around, you need to identify widely felt concerns that are deeply winnable. The second phase of the conversation is where organizers reassure members that they are not alone and gives both people a chance to focus on the heart of the issue.

This is done by asking open-ended questions, pinpointing concerns, and identifying why they matter to the member. It is important to use the concerns brought forward and lay the blame on a decision-maker who can fix the problem. Validating a concern and identifying where to focus on fixing the problem will lead to mobilizing for action.

Prepare for action

The final step in your organizing conversation is the call to action. Once again, the member must be involved in deciding on the action. This is where the discussions turn to planning and execution. You need to decide on a specific action that will pinpoint the issue and direct the action so that change can happen.

It is important to prepare for responses and possible outcomes to the actions, both positive and negative. This step ensures that when an inevitable response comes to the action, a member won’t be thrown by it. Preparing counterpoints and possible action escalations strengthens the resolve of a member in the action and re-affirms their commitment to solving the problem.

Follow up

As you can see, having the organizing conversation is just the beginning. The organizing conversation sets an action, or series of escalating actions, in motion. As the organizer in your workplace, be it an OSSTF/FEESO Bargaining Unit or District, you need to monitor the results of the actions and follow up.

In the book Secrets Of A Successful Organizer, Bradbury, Brenner, and Slaughter (57) note that “90% of organizing is follow-up.” Actions need to be monitored and evaluated for their effectiveness. The members taking the actions need support. Actions will, inevitably, lead to further organizing conversions and possibly more actions. Members that take actions, and the actions themselves that see gains in our workplaces need to be celebrated. Don’t forget how important it is to recognize our successes and use the lessons learned in your next organizing conversations and actions.

Ultimately, we become stronger together when we are having conversations and taking action to improve public education. This framework, while specifically geared to engaging in workplace conversations, can also be applied to community-level activism, where you work with people in your neighborhood or community to fight for better services, supports, and resources for all in your community.

Bill Hewitt (he/him), OSSTF/FEESO Regional Organizer
Mary Fraser-Hamilton (she/her), OSSTF/FEESO Regional Organizer

WORKS CITED
Tranjan, Richardo. “Ontario’s Core Education Funding has dropped by $1,500 per student since 2018” The Monitor, monitormag.ca/articles/ontarios-core-education-funding-has-dropped-by-1-500-per-student-since-2018/.
Bradbury A., Brenner M., Slaughter J. Secrets Of A Successful Organizer. ©Labor Education and Research Project, 2016, p.57.