York University, Clara Thomas Archives, FWTAO.
EQUAL PAY… EQUAL VALUE
The teacher federations supported a pay scale based on qualifications and experi- ence, not on grade taught. FWTAO had taken the concept of equal pay to OTF in 1946; the debate lasted nearly a year. OTF eventually passed the policy, and in 1951, Ontario passed The Fair Remuneration for Female Employees Act, the first equal pay legislation in the country. Inequities were deeply embedded, however, and not com- pletely eradicated until the mid-1960s. In the 1970s, women began to think be-
yond the idea of equal pay in favour of equal pay for work of equal value, or pay equity. In spite of legislation, unions and collective agreements, women working full time in the paid labour force were still making, on aver- age, significantly less than their male counter- parts. Work done predominantly by women was paid at a lower rate than that done by men, even when they had the same employer. In 1976, the Pay Equity Coalition was
formed to lobby for change. More than a decade of work resulted in the 1988 Ontario Pay Equity Act. The Act provided a way to compare the work of men and women on the basis of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
16 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2016 ETFO: A NEW ERA
Since teachers first organized in Ontario, women and men public elementary teachers were represented by different organizations. The Ontario Public School Men Teachers’ Federation (OPSMTF), later called the On- tario Public School Teachers’ Federation (OPSTF), made overtures to FWTAO to join together as one federation. FWTAO resisted until 1994 when the separation by gender was found to violate the Ontario Human Rights Code. Negotiations began to bring the two public
elementary teacher fed-
erations together. In 1998, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) was created. ETFO is now the largest teacher union in Canada. A big part of what ETFO does is ensure that a commitment to equity is at the centre of work in the classroom and the federation. One of the founding prin- ciples of the merger of the two unions was a commitment to guaranteed funding for women’s programs.
ARE “WOMEN’S ISSUES” STILL AN ISSUE?
In the debates around feminism, this ques- tion is often asked. It is 2016 after all. But women’s wages are still lower than those
of men. Women still bear most of the re- sponsibility for home care, child care and elder care. Women still experience violence and harassment on a daily basis – at home and at work. The struggle for high quality accessible
child care remains, and elementary educa- tion is still underfunded compared with sec- ondary education. Political power is still held predominantly
by men. Although the federal cabinet is now half women, only 26 percent of Canadian legislators are women. At the present rate, it will take more than 200 years before women are represented equally with men in the Ca- nadian House of Commons. So the short answer is “yes.” Women’s is-
sues are still issues for us all. ETFO is committed to working for equity
for all its members, 81 percent of whom are women. But no union, no federation, can achieve its goals without the active partici- pation of its members. This history tells you about the past. The future is up to all of us. n
Mary Morison is an executive staff member at ETFO.
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