Center

• Both conservative commentators and the premier have argued the bargaining table is not the place for teachers to negotiate concerns about classroom issues.
• Although bargaining is sometimes interpreted narrowly as a discussion over wages and benefits it is not, by its nature, limited to that.
• Bargaining can — and has — acted as a democratic tool to expand public resources to areas beyond workplace compensation.

Bargaining classroom size

• In Ontario, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has negotiated that the boards and government provide ongoing classroom size data to the union in order to determine future classroom ratios.
• The court ruled the government’s decision to unilaterally prevent teachers from bargaining classroom size and composition was a violation of their constitutional rights to bargaining collectively.

Cuts to education

The dispute in Saskatchewan did not come out of nowhere. There has been a 10 per cent drop in per-student funding since 2012-2013. In 2017, the Saskatchewan Party government cut funding to public education by $22 million from the previous fiscal year. In the same period, enrolments have risen to record numbers. These issues pushed teachers to a collective bargaining dispute in 2019, but it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staffing crises

• Becotte’s comments align with research showing attrition rates have hovered at close to 50 per cent over about the last decade.
• Squeezed board budgets have meant an increase in fees to some Saskatoon and Regina parents for lunch-time supervision.
• Numbers have dropped for many educational roles, including for educational assistants, English as an additional language teachers, counsellors, librarians, psychologists and other pathologists.

‘Parents rights’ issues

• The government said this was an issue of parents’ rights.
• Yet many others interpreted it as an attack on the ability of teachers to provide necessary support and guidance to kids in a safe and supportive environment.

Bargaining as important tool

• Trying to prevent teachers from including issues surrounding unmet student needs in bargaining is to effectively leave the public in the dark on the conditions of our schools and render governments largely unaccountable.
• The most important tool that all unionized workers have at their disposal is their ability to collectively bargain.
• Many of these campaigns have been waged by teachers’ unions.

Unions driving change

• CUPW’s success encouraged other unions to take a similar position and today public maternity/paternity leave is a universal public program.
• Unions and their members have real power when they use the tools available to them to seek real workplace and community change.

Bargaining about trade-offs

• Prioritizing issues related to what unions identify as key “common good” themes might mean that other issues cannot be highlighted.
• While salaries and benefits will always be an issue, there is overwhelming teacher support for existing bargaining proposals.

Simon Enoch is a member of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party Charles Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• In England, the vacancy rate in the adult social care workforce for 2022-2023 was 9.9%.
• Experts underline that staffing and financing were problems in the care sector well before COVID arrived in March 2020.
• The pandemic exacerbated this crisis, despite the extra £2.1 billion in emergency government support, provided during the first year.
• Of the care workers we spoke to, 42% are in financial distress related to having worked in care homes during the pandemic.

Care workers in dire straits

• We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 43 care home staff, including workers and managers.
• We found that most of the £2.1 billion in government aid went to covering care homes’ loss of revenue resulting from decreasing occupancy.
• In the first two years of the pandemic, 1,290 care workers (including those working in domiciliary settings) died as a result of COVID-19.
• Of the care workers we surveyed, 80% reported working more hours during the pandemic, typically doing 12-hour shifts, as opposed to the seven to eight-hour norm.
• Taking on extra hours actually put some workers at a financial disadvantage because it reduced their eligibility for in-work benefits.

A defective funding model

• It highlighted the demise, since 2011, of two major providers, Southern Cross and Four Seasons, which housed 45,000 elderly people between them.
• Our findings confirm that the complex funding model on which the care home sector is based is unsustainable.
• For the most part, however, two things kept care homes afloat in the first year of the pandemic.
• Our [staff] turnover rate has gone up to about 33%, and we had it down at about 18% before the pandemic.
• Our [staff] turnover rate has gone up to about 33%, and we had it down at about 18% before the pandemic.

Marianna Fotaki receives funding from UK Research and Innovation COVID Scheme Derya Ozdemir Kaya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Egypt first opened its borders for aid deliveries into Gaza on Oct. 21, and since then, 54 trucks with medical supplies had entered Gaza as of Oct. 23, according to the U.N.
• But the U.N. and other international aid groups are warning that the 2.3 million people living in Gaza remain in dire need of more clean water, food, fuel and medical care.
• The U.N.’s relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, is also saying that without more fuel, it will have to stop its work on everything from providing medical care to setting up shelters for displaced people on Oct. 25.
• Safely delivering aid in Gaza has unique complications – including the fact that the U.S. and the European Union classify Hamas as a terrorist group.

What are the challenges with providing aid in conflict zones like Gaza?

• There are often security issues that may affect an aid group’s access to a population.
• And there is the risk that aid workers will be attacked, as has happened increasingly over the last several years.
• There are also concerns about aid, which is intended only for civilians, being diverted for military purposes.

How do politics affect humanitarian work, which is supposed to be neutral?

• We are not addressing the underlying causal issues related to a crisis.
• But the politics surrounding an emergency are still often a major, complicating factor in our work.
• Or, there is a concern that the aid may not get to where it is most needed, such as all hospitals throughout Gaza.

How does Hamas factor into this planning?

The U.S. and the European Union have very strict rules that will block the financial assets of organizations that give money or support to Hamas, or any other organization they classify as a terrorist group. These sanctions also prohibit any direct contact between aid groups and a listed terrorist organization like Hamas.

Can you give an example of what this looks like in practice?

• I arrived in Afghanistan immediately after the Taliban took over in 2021 with the World Health Organization.
• We needed to find new ways of doing work, in order to bypass the Taliban and the Ministry of Public Health, which the former now controlled.
• This disruption created challenges in terms of both distributing aid quickly and in terms of sustainability, as many of the employees at the ministry left.

What are the long-term effects of navigating around governments that are classified by some countries as terrorist groups?

• While this may work in the short term and save lives, these parallel systems have longer-term, negative effects.
• Government officials may leave their jobs for higher-paying jobs in the U.N. and with NGOs, for example.
• Despite the various challenges I have mentioned in this discussion, I believe that humanity must prevail, over all other aspects.

Paul Spiegel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Among the Commission’s final recommendations was the implementation of such a service to help stop people from committing such abuse.
• Australia
  was launched, an anonymous service for people worried about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviours in relation to children.
• Read more:
  Use proper names for body parts, don't force hugs: how to protect your kids from in-person sexual abuse

The need for a perpetration prevention service

• Research shows one in three girls and one in five boys in Australia are victims of child sexual abuse.
• But real and lasting progress in decreasing child sexual abuse will only occur when we work with (potential) perpetrators to prevent harm.
• We need to work with these individuals to prevent child sexual abuse occurring in the first place.
• They felt that if the service saves just one child from sexual abuse, it is worthwhile.
• UK and Ireland, which collaborated closely with the Australian team ahead of the local service, has operated for more than 20 years.

Early intervention is key

• This indicates the service is reaching people before they come to the attention of authorities, and in this way is providing early intervention.
• They talk about struggling with problem thoughts or behaviours for years and wanting to change, but not knowing how.
• Australia offers an anonymous space for individuals to manage and change their thoughts or behaviours, and this helps prevent child sexual abuse.
• The service’s limited opening hours has been identified as a barrier for some people being able to access the program.
• Australia is focused on putting the responsibility for child sexual abuse prevention on adults and (potential) perpetrators.