Dynamic Negotiations: Teacher Labour Relations in Elementary and Secondary Education; Sara Slinn & Arthur Sweetman, eds. Book Review

Abstract

This prescient volume of research essays providing cross- jurisdictional comparisons of teacher collective bargaining across the country should be priority reading for the new Premier of Ontario,' the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, who have been engaged in what could be described as the most "dynamic" of all recent teacher collective agreement negotiations in Ontario. The eleven essays in this volume examine the history of teacher bargaining in each province in publicly funded schools, and provide detailed and informative comparisons of elementary and secondary teacher collective bargaining structures. According to the editors, the book is part of a project aimed at assisting labour relations in Ontario through training and information dissemination. It could not be more timely. Ontario's self-styled "education premier," Liberal Dalton McGuinty, left the stage in January of 2013 to the echo of thousands of angry teacher protesters outside the Liberal leadership convention while his successor, a former Minister of Education in his government, hastened to extend an olive branch to teachers in an effort to end their widespread political protests and rotating strikes * Victoria R6aume is a union-side labour lawyer in Ontario whose practice has focused on education law. She is a co-editor of Education Labour and Employment Law in Ontario, published by Canada Law Book.