Ruth Baumann
Like many teachers, for Ruth being in the classroom was “somewhat accidental.” After graduation, she spent a year working with adolescent boys in a USA residential treatment centre – not always a “happy experience,” but the year did allow her to discover that she liked working with kids having difficulties. After returning to university to gain a Master’s in teaching, she worked in a state hospital for three years.
In 1973 she moved to Toronto with her Canadian husband, and got a job with the Toronto School Board, teaching at Northern Secondary School as part of a special education program there. She also became involved with the teacher federation, and soon became head of the school union executive. With the 1975-76 Toronto teachers’ strike, she took up the position in charge of all picketing across the city. Then, beginning in 1982, she served on the Provincial OSSTF Executive for six years, following which she returned to the classroom for two years. Finally, in 1990, she took an administrative position with the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, where she remained until her retirement in 2007; during her final three years, she served as secretary-treasurer of the organization.
The interview with Ruth involved a number of in-depth and wide-ranging discussions of structures and events pertaining to teacher unions over the past half-century. For each of these issues Ruth provided both her very astute observations as well as her very reasoned opinions on the matter. These issues included the following (in no particular order, as the conversation often returned to add to specific issues):
– OTF working with various governments; developing proposals with other groups (school trustees, etc) to present to the provincial government; province-wide discussions over how schools could be improved;
– issues with the ways in which teacher federations were structured by government legislation;
– relations with school principals, before and after separation from teachers’ union;
– establishing an “unprecedented” pension plan partnership with government, giving teachers equal representation on its governing body;
– teachers coming under the labour relations acts, and the advantages/disadvantages thereof;
– inequities in the provincial tax system, as it related to the funding of schools;
– amalgamation of school boards, and the resultant tensions with teachers;
– finally, extensive discussion of the Ontario province-wide teacher strike in the fall of 1997, how it ended, and the significant internal differences/tensions between the various teacher unions involved.
~ Interviewed by Andy Hanson and Harry Smaller