Professional and French Language Services
MTS encourages and helps teachers continue to learn. MTS sponsors and presents an array of workshops and seminars for public school teachers. Over 100 teachers attend functions at McMaster House (the name of the MTS building) in a typical week. MTS also provides resources and financial support for 28 Special Area Groups of Educators (SAGEs). The Society conducts various types of business in French, from collective bargaining to counselling. French Language Services provide support in both official languages.
Your PFLS department organizes a major conference just for teachers in their first five years called Fab5. The conference offers a variety of practical workshops designed that focus on day-to-day classroom issues such as student engagement, parent partnerships, working with EAs and social media. Information on the Fab5 is usually posted on the website a few months in advance of the October conference.
The department also provides presentations through its Teacher-Led Learning Team. The team is made up of everyday teachers trained in presenting workshops. Topics have included classroom management, working with EAs and Indigenous Perspectives.
A full program of PD events and other information is available under the PD section of this website.
Teacher Welfare
Collective Bargaining:
The Manitoba Teachers’ Society helps negotiate collective agreements on behalf of all public school teachers and teachers in some First Nations communities. It has a group of negotiators who help local teacher associations.
Negotiations in Manitoba are done on a division-by-division basis, unlike most provinces where negotiations are done province-wide.
All collective agreements and comparisons between divisions are available under the bargaining section of this website.
Personnel Services:
The Society provides a staff to help with myriad personnel issues that face teachers in their day-to-day work and dealings with school division administrations. Staff officers handle hundreds of personnel cases each year, settling problems themselves or bringing in legal counsel when required.
Benefits:
The Society also offers help to members who need to use any of the many health benefits enjoyed under collective agreements. With some differences between local teachers’ associations, these benefits include a dental plan, deferred salary leave plan, health insurance and life insurance.
Pension Plan (TRAF):
The teachers’ pension plan is known as TRAF, the Teachers’ Retirement Allowances Fund. A board manages the defined benefit pensions for Manitoba’s public school teachers.
The Society and the Government of Manitoba, through the Pension Task Force, discuss pension issues, and recommend changes to The Teachers’ Pensions Act.
330–25 Forks Market Road Winnipeg, MB R3C 4S8
Phone: 204-949-0048
Toll free: 1-800-782-0714
Fax: 204-944-0361
info@traf.mb.ca
www.traf.mb.ca
Communications
The Manitoba Teachers’ Society is committed to making sure its membership is informed about the activities of the Society and keeping members abreast of news in education.
To that end, the Society publishes The Manitoba Teacher, a magazine that goes free to all members seven times during the school year. Other mail-outs to members are done as issues arise.
The Society also administers an extensive website, mbteach.org that encompasses all areas of MTS activities and offers current education news, professional development and other items of interest to members, parents and the general public.
Each year MTS also creates various publications to help teachers in different aspects of their work. Various brochures and handbooks are available on the website.
As well, the publications department is responsible for the design and printing of most Special Area Groups of Educators (SAGE) journals and newsletters.
All publications are available in the MTS Library section of this website.
Éducatrices et éducateurs francophones du Manitoba (ÉFM)
ÉFM is an MTS agency that represents teachers who work in the French language or in French immersion programs, about 2,100 members of the Society.
Visit www.efm-mts.org for EFM events and news.
Disability Benefits Plan (DBP)
The MTS Disability Benefits Plan is an insurance plan, for both short and long-term disability, owned and operated by The Manitoba Teachers’ Society. Participation is mandatory for all members.
When members experience illness or injury, on or off the job, the Plan is will assist with medical and vocational rehabilitation to ensure the earliest possible return to work. Where an absence extends beyond 80 working days or meets the qualifying criteria, the Plan provides income replacement during the period of disability while continuing to assist the claimant with rehabilitation and where appropriate, return to work services.
The Early Intervention Program provides services which assist teachers at risk of having to discontinue work due to a medical condition, to remain in the workplace while assisting them in addressing their health issues.
The Plan is dedicated to assisting members through periods of disability in a manner that attempts to assure, in a consultative approach, maximum rehabilitation medically and vocationally and assisting members, when possible, to return to work, while providing financial security at a cost reasonable to premium paying members. Some benefits provided by the Plan are: early intervention/prevention services; wage replacement benefits/TRAF contributions; vocational rehabilitation services.