The public school teachers of British Columbia are not working today, as part of an initial 3-day strike. The Vancouver Sun’s Janet Steffenhagen has published a “Fact vs. Fiction” piece that is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand what this strike is all about. Her blog page is probably the most comprehensive resource on the subject, with new items being added daily.
I have lots of friends who are public school teachers. My heart goes out to them individually. But my head remains resolute that there is only so much money that can be removed from the pockets of the citizenry. So what is a fair wage for a teacher? Is $50K/yr too little? Is $1M/yr too much? Who’s to say what is “fair”?
The bigger question is why so-called “professionals” belong to a union. Other professions, such as engineers, aren’t allowed to belong to a union. Couldn’t many of the current problems be solved by legislation that states that joining the BCTF is optional? Then individual teachers could negotiate individual salaries & benefits just like everyone else in the non-union private sector.
This situation in B.C. seems strangely similar to what happened in Wisconsin last year. Unfortunately, Premier Christy Clark ain’t no Scott Walker!
Correction: It was my understanding that Canadian engineers could not belong to a union. I was misinformed on this point and have deleted the pertinent sentences above.
They could have chosen a higher paying profession, but then they would have had to work 2 more months per year. Teachers don’t seem to think there should be a correlation between the amount of work they do and what they get paid for it. You would think that would be a pretty simple concept to understand for someone who educates others for a living.
“Unfortunately, Premier Christy Clark ain’t no Scott Walker!”
No, our Christy acts more like a Street Walker.
The BCTF seems to be getting little sympathy from people I’ve spoken to. It’s hard to sympathise with someone making 60k a year,with 12 “sick days” and 11 weeks vacation, and a pension and health care benefits the rest of us can only envy while we pay for it.
One of the problems with the narrative used by the union which focuses on the value that teachers bring to education (number of hours worked vs paid hours, the youth are our future, etc.). You can debate the merits or validity of these various measures.
What’s missing, though, is the weighing of this value versus the supply, i.e., how the teachers unions limit supply of teachers willing to do the job for less. How many teachers are sitting on their hands, subbing in whenever, and hoping for a full-time position? Hundreds? Thousands?
When the supply of teachers outweigh the corresponding value of demand, then there is a downward pressure on their price (i.e. salary, benefits). Therefore, there is no need to increase the wages.
Which is why they have to strike. Otherwise, if there was a dearth of teachers in the realm, we would likely pay them what the market would bear.
(And do I have to remind these teachers that no one asked them to teach?)
“Other professions, such as engineers, aren’t allowed to belong to a union.”
Is this true? More to the point, would it matter even if it weren’t true?
Keeping in mind what I said above, there is no reason for most engineers to want to strike, because there are so few of them relative to the value they provide. Therefore, with their limited supply versus their high demand, they are already adequately compensated accordingly.
They don’t need to go on strike, at least not in a relatively unregulated market for engineers.
Just want to clarify that quite a large number of engineers are members of pipsc. Most university professors are unionized and some of these are professionals too. There is nothing that says a professional can’t also be unionized. Other than common sense of course.
“Fair” is what taxpayers SAY is fair.
I hate Christy Clark as much as anyone else but this was masterfully played. They introduced Bill 22 which imposes fines on the union and teachers for striking. They claimed it would be passed “very soon”, the teachers voted to strike and all of a sudden the legislation is stalled. Sometime next week the real legislation will be introduced that will impose their contract. The teachers will look like the money grubbers they are and the government will come out as saints. These people are teaching our kids? What a bunch of idiots.
In Ontario, teachers are required by the provincial gov’t to be members of OSSTF in order to be allowed to teach, not sure if it is the same arrangement in BC.
In honour of the strike please find below the text of a recent thesis abstract from a BC student who is earning her Master’s of Arts in Education. This is no joke.
Thesis title: THE PINOCCHIO REVOLUTION –WHEN PROTAGONISTS COME TO LIFE
Covert Story within the Cybercommunity of Facebook
“Enter a digital world where reality and fantasy intermingle and avatars are not only phenomenological but also tactile. “The Pinocchio Revolution—When Protagonists Come to Life” delves into a digital story unrecognizable in the traditional sense. This thesis focuses on research that examines the covert story telling practiced within the global cybercommunity of Facebook. To date there are no other published studies on this subculture of Facebook. The story involves cybercitizens that are stuffies (in the United Kingdom they are referred to as fluffies)—stuffed animal toys. They are referred to as cyberstuffies. The cyberstuffies do not represent an actual human individual but rather, an autonomous fictional character created by a covert human being. However, the characters’ identities often intertwine with that of their human creator.
The study challenges the multifaceted role of researcher as participant, covert creator and researcher. Theories that influence the study are the theories of hybridity and intertextuality and socio semiotic theory; all included in the broader multiliteracies theory. In addition, the theory of popular culture as everyday culture theory is considered. Furthermore, as the cybercitizens are both tactile and phenomenological, the theory of phenomenological immersion is explored in the paper.
1050 Facebook friends of the cyberstuffy Ms. Fuzz Buzz (pseudonym) were observed for a period of one month. In addition, as I am a co-author (within a group of four cyberauthors) of the fictitious Facebook story called Stuffington Estates, I observed both the broader Facebook cyberstuffy community’s story creation as well as my own story creation on Facebook for a minimum of two hours a day, seven days a week for one month.
The ethnographical research uncovers a secret world where the boundaries between fantasy and reality are blurred. Facebook story is both fiction and nonfiction and off-line/online distinctions are blurred as these worlds become indistinguishable. Identity is fluid and constantly evolving to suit the current story line. Sometimes the main protagonist is the cyberstuffy, sometimes the covert human, and sometimes the tactile stuffed animal. One can never be sure at a single reading which identity one will encounter. The role of multiauthorship is key to the creation of Facebook story. Facebook story is a collaborative, social event. One must be highly socially literate to succeed as a Facebook cyberstuffy. Facebook readers become phenomenologically immersed in the story, often, the human creator asking a cyberstuffy friend real life questions, and requesting to meet the cyberstuffy as though the stuffy exits as an autonomous identity in reality.
The narrative of Facebook story is written prepublishing as well as in real time. Authority and agency of story are shared within the multiauthorship. The more socially literate the authors, the more authority and agency they acquire. The Facebook story is hypertextual, written using a broad variety of on and off-line modes and mediums. It is a novel and covert approach to creating story—the participants are violating Facebook policy by their mere existence, as all Facebook members must be actual human beings with a minimum age of 13 (Facebook, 2009). This adds a dimension of tension to the story as authors create with the constant threat that their “work” and cyber identity may vanish at any moment. Facebook authors counter balance this threat by attempting to make their cyberstory a physical authority through creating Facebook fan pages, participating in off-line cyberstuffy meetings and also by sending tactile presents to other cyberstuffies through the postal service.
The research will benefit the areas of education, media, literacy, and the arts. Exploring new ways in which story is being practiced online through a multiliteracies theory is important for educators. Educators will learn new and innovative ways in which students practice literacy, writing skills and artistic expression within new media. Facebook story includes but is not limited to online: prose, poetry, video, audio, photography, multi-authoring, role-playing, and social interaction, as well as off-line: art creation, set design, costume design, travel and social interaction. Especially interesting to educators and new media designers will be the formation of online identity and the relationships between identity, cyberidentity, cybercitizenship and cybercommunity and cyberartifact. ”
You do NOT need a Fact vs Fiction blog. If it came from the teacher’s union….fiction.If it came from the BC gubermint…..fiction.
I can’t get over how wonderful this is…..leftard commie gubermint vs leftard socialist teachers. Fire them all. After all,THAT would really be for the children!!!
“Just want to clarify that quite a large number of engineers are members of pipsc. Most university professors are unionized and some of these are professionals too. There is nothing that says a professional can’t also be unionized. Other than common sense of course.
Posted by: John Eggert at March 7, 2012 5:14 PM ”
If you are unionized ,you are NOT a professional. Professionals do not need commies/socialists “fighting for their rights”. And by “professionals”, I mean people who earn their place,money,and respect on their own merits,not some union crap. Why do you think the idea of job-performance pay,result based testing,etc. scares the crap out of 99.9% of teachers and ALL unions? Remember,these are the same groups who gave you a ribbon just for showing up.
In my daughter’s school she was recently told in one of her classes that she should not flush the toilet every time she uses it as doing so increases her footprint on the earth.
And I am supposed to feel sympathy for the teaching profession because….??????
One thing I find astounding is that even though there are 40,000 odd teachers in BC, not *ONE* will publicly take a contrary view to their union leader thugs. That tells you something about the individuality of thought within the teaching community. It simply does not exist. If it thinks like a socialist, if it acts like a socialist, its a socialist, and if it belongs to a union like a socialist, then it is a socialist.
I say right to work legislation NOW!!!!
Then FIRE THEM ALL!
Dear Rob Huck & John Eggert,
When I worked in Ontario it was made absolutely clear to me that professional engineers could NOT belong to a union. I thought this was true across the country. My apologies if my assumption is incorrect.
Robert W.
But they are striking for the children! Everything these selfless public servants do is for the children!
Seniority and outrageous pay demands have nothing to do with it.
BUT, BUT, BUT – they are doing it for the CHILDREN.
I heard a teacher say so on the radio this morning (in Vancouver). So, it MUST be true.
The 16% increase over 3 years, and the MASSIVE PAID LEAVE – after all, a friend may need company (when THEY decide) are required; and the TAXPAYERS MUST “contribute” more – it is for the CHILDREN!
Rob Huck – nice comments on supply and demand.
Unions are, in my view, parasites. They take their dues from the salaries of the members; they want more and more members because they are a profit-driven enterprise. These dues support the Union Administrators – that’s how these Union Bosses ‘earn’ their living. From the wages of others.
How do they benefit the workers? They reduce the work productivity to the LCD, the lowest common denominator. They prevent accountability for low output, prevent rewards for extra accomplishments – in favour of the ‘average work capacity’ of the LCD.
In some parts of Canada, you can’t get a job without belonging to the union. You may, if you wish, ‘not be a member’ but your dues will still be deducted. If you oppose the union, you’ll find that promotions, benefits etc – are stalled or not forthcoming.
And, unions are money-launderers for the left political parties. Unions contribute heavily to the NDP, Liberals and Democrats; that is, they use the dues from the members and pass it on to these political parties – an action that has nothing to do with any work place well-being.
Guild socialism is alive and well and involves all professions that have right to practice legislation mandating that only someone from such and such a profession can legally practice in said province. Standards of practice can and should be adhered to on a voluntary manner while compelling no one to do business with them.
The highest use of public sector unions is to kick-back cash or in-kind political favours to the NDP or (federal)Liberal Parties. Given the depth of labour code legislation and the fact that the vast majority of provincial budgets goes into just Education and Health care, and the total unionization of those functions, you won’t find a conservative government in Canada who will touch it. Perhaps after Ontario defaults?
When you have to pass a separate piece of legislation in lieu of dysfunction at the contract negotiating table, it shows how Greek we have become.
I spoke with a German friend of mine this afternoon. She’s a public school teacher there and not in a union. She explained that teachers in Hamburg, where she lives, are not allowed to go on strike. Why? Because they’re gov’t employees and the law prevents them from striking.
I explained to her that over here the system has gotten corrupted because teachers’ union dues go to fund school board and provincial candidates who are clearly in the pocket of the BCTF. When problems arise, you have both parties on the same side of the negotiating table. That’s a failed system by any fair definition of “equitable labour relations”.
Time for the first public sector union lockout.
When is the tipping point going to be reached? How long do teachers and public unions in gument and other tax dependent employment think that they can push the real producers?
In this teacher issue, I ran out of tolerance a long time ago but I am not a parent; if I were, no child of mine would be forced to waste his/her time in a indoctrination center that is boring, mind numbing and humiliating. Some parents rely on schools to take care of their kids during the day (babysitters) and other parents do not believe that they are qualified to teach their own children themselves; hence most people send their kids to school.
Privatize education – the tipping point has almost been reached. A change would be good for the children. What a terrible waste of time school is for all the players; good teachers quit, good students quit; in private education the poor/bad would be out and the good would take the upper hand. If education became a business. IMO education is a business, the business of the future, it is not a sacred cow.
RobertW:
As of the time I was working in BC, Engineers could not join a union. This may have changed.
Cheers
KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!
Rules or no rules; you can be a Union member or you can be a Professional. You can’t be both things simultaneously.
Robert, ‘I explained to her that over here the system has gotten corrupted because teachers’ union dues go to fund school board and provincial candidates who are clearly in the pocket of the BCTF. When problems arise, you have both parties on the same side of the negotiating table. That’s a failed system by any fair definition of “equitable labour relations”.’
It is the same in Saskatchewan and when I was on the local school board before they were disbanded the district board had a number of “retired” teachers on the board as was the board chairman. Now that the district boards have been amalgamated into even larger boards I suspect that it is the same.
That was interesting about your German teacher friend.
Christie Clark is the Walking Dead. Too bad … we are going to get the brain dead NDP next.
I have heard that they are complaining that education has fallen from 25% of the budget, to 16%.. OMG.. It is getting to the point in B.C.(bitch and complain)..that we should just give them all our wages and get an allowance.
Ban public sector unions! They are an abomination.
Provinces need to adopt right-to-work legislation!
The longer the teachers in BC strike, the better off the kids will be. Abolish public education!
Mr. Harper, are you listening?
Also I heard a fellow wanting to be paid by the hour like fire fighters and police(in a “plummy Brit accent”).. Fine let’s pay them $35.00 an hour.. for 9 months of the year.
“… but then they would have had to work 2 more months per year”
Hardly. With Christmas, Easter and all the “PD” days, that figure is closer to 3 months. So the “poor” teacher making a meager $54K would, in a private sector job, be pro-rated by 12/9 or $72K for a “real” job. And, of course, they’re eligible for salary hikes for BS ed courses taken, which may or may not improve their teaching ability one iota. If they’re not paid for performance, there’s no damn way they should be eligible for increases just for taking some educrat bird course.
Pardon me while I tear up.
Teaching: a very self-important, pompous and self-righteous closed-shop union monopoly where members don’t need to update or improve (or be held accountable for results), and then whine sanctimoniously about how they “sacrificed” their careers for their underappreciated position, while holding your child’s education for ransom to get better pay for fewer hours work.
Nice racket you have going there.
mhb23re at gmail d0t calm
There’s a way to end all this. Introduce some alternatives, perhaps even competition.
Parents who send their kids to private schools – or home school – should not have to pay the education portion of their property taxes.
I can’t wait ’til Tim Hudak or some equally brave ‘Conservative’ (note the large c)brings this up.
teaching is a vocation …. not a profession.
Banning public sector unions is a bad idea. Teachers, the same as anyone, have freedom of association. What we need to ban is forced union dues. It’s bad enough that our government has the power of taxation (backed by police with guns!), but giving that power to unions is insane.
But if we take away that right, unions will change their priorities in short order. For example, they’ll begin to favor merit over seniority, because new teachers coming into the system will be more likely to pay dues if they can earn promotions on merit.
Other professions, such as engineers, aren’t allowed to belong to a union.
Sorry,but that is not correct.I was a member of AFPTE.-American Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers Local 164 Asea Brown Boveri in Guelph Ontario
Robert,
Engineers are in no way barred from joining a union here in Ontario. Indeed, a good many are unionized in industrial environments ie Hydro.
RobertW
You wrote:
“When I worked in Ontario it was made absolutely clear to me that professional engineers could NOT belong to a union. I thought this was true across the country. My apologies if my assumption is incorrect.”
Someone mislead you. I am a registered professional engineer in Ontario and have been since 1992. I can assure you that there is no law that forbids engineers joining a union, anywhere in Canada. Such a law would be a violation of section 2.(d) of the charter of rights and freedoms. Here in Sudbury a number of professional engineers who work for Vale are unionized. I know of professional engineers in Trail BC who are unionized, so you are wrong about BC too. Many professional engineers who work for the provincial and federal governments are unionized. Most engineering professors are professional engineers and are unionized. Some high school teachers are professional engineers and are unionized.
Whatever your views on unions, the thought that anyone would be statute barred from joining one is absurd in a socialist country like Canada.
Columnists Vaughn Palmer and Keith Baldry stated that the BCTF consider themselves to be a “social justice movement” and thus exempt from the same constraints or settlements as other gov’t unions.
Then on CKNW this morning BCTF President Susan Lambert confirmed their “social justice” bona fides.
I’m really ticked. What has happened to teaching real skills? Much of what should be learning is now indoctrination – from ‘global warming’ to LGBTFQ or whatever alphabet issues are the flavour of the day.
I note the favorite adjective used by teachers and supporters in responding to complaints about their unwarranted strike: “bashing”. If you have the temerity to question the motive or loyalty of your employee, you’re designated a ‘basher’ and a ‘bully’.
On another – but related -note, I was at a small meeting this morning and during the break, the strike became a topic of conversation. Immediately, a fellow who was a lifelong federal civil servant jumped to the ‘defense’ of his teacher daughter. As others stood in silence I posited that the unionization of teachers should be revoked, saying that anyone with a monopoly on providing a public service cannot also use that monopoly to hold the public hostage.
Interestingly, some of the others then jumped on board in ageement, adding other reasons why they felt the strike unfair and unwarranted.
We are all Breitbart, folks! There are many out there who feel as you and I do but the Canadian propensity for ‘concensus’ and politeness means that most will NOT speak up unless they feel they’ve been granted the permission that hearing it first from another allows.
A newspaper poll shows that 58% do not agree with the teachers, yet watching the MSM, you’d think that children and parents are united, marching in the streets in favor of teachers and against their own self-interest.
Further to the idea that the BCTF is unique as a ‘social justice movement’ rather than another public sector union:
They are the only union unwilling to settle under a ‘net-zero’ basis.
More telling is the fact that over the last thirty years, with only a single exception, they have had to be legislated back to work. That’s under Social Credit, NDP (2x) and Liberal governments.
The only time they settled was when they received a 16% wage increase and a $4,000 signing bonus.
“It’s for the children” (TM)
The government needs to allow competition and choice in education. Give parents vouchers and let them decide which school the kids attend. I’m not sure what that would do for teachers’ salaries, but it would improve the quality of education.
One word – pension
We who don’t have a pension are screwed, the market will not deliver like it did ten years ago. If we try to be risky with our investments, we can lose a lot. If we aren’t, we won’t have enough to retire.
Pensions – golden
Teachers have now elevated the social engineering to this garbage. For the children of course.
http://bctf.ca/uploadedfiles/Public/SocialJustice/Issues/LGBTQ/Resources/GenderSpectrum.pdf
Engineers are not required to join a union, they can work somewhere else, just choose a different door to knock on.
If teachers wants to teach and not join a union, their only alternative is to teach outside of the publicly funded school system. The vast majority of teaching doors are closed to them.
Right to work legislation would prevent this, freeing teachers to make their choices based on something outside of simply a financial consideration.
Adults should be free to choose.
“Give parents vouchers and let them decide which school the kids attend.”
I agree. But here’s a take on the ‘social justice’ BCTF and choice – “it’s not fair.”
Some 20 years ago Surrey tried a charter school experiment. Parents camped out for days to get their children enrolled, a sure sign of ‘consumer demand’. Nonetheless, the BCTF managed to end the charter.
Their rationale? It wasn’t fair. Why? Because many students in the catchment area did not have parents who were willing to go that extra mile for their kids, thus leaving them disadvantaged vis a vis those kids whose parents were more motivated.
And in an equality of outcome society, you just can’t have that. LCD (lowest common denominator) as someone said, is the operative methodology throughout our school system.
I still like the idea of the Voucher System for funding education.
Competition is the answer to so many problems.
A pox on all their houses.
First of all, the stupid govt turns down 40 million dollars from Telus for putting thier name on the football stadium, B.C. Place. 40 million fricken dollars. Then they turn around and tell the teachers there is no money.
Having said that I HOPE the teachers go on an illegal strike. Because that is when the rubber really hits the road-as in fines. $400 per day per teacher for an illegal walkout as well as millions per day for the union and also for the union exect.. I hope,I hope, I hope.
All governments are now looking at what they were able to accomplish in Wisconsin and other states are following suit. The local NDPers and unions were crapping their collective (how’s than for a pun)pants at what was happening in Wisconsin because they knew if they were successful it would spread like wild fire.
One of the most common things that teachers argue for is smaller class sizes.
I know that I am dating myself but when I was in grade four we started our year with 54 kids in the classroom. Nine sat on stools around the outside edge of the room for 2 weeks until they were transferred to other schools.
We completed the rest of the year with 45 children (5 rows of 9 kids each) without one problem.
That’s amazing enough. But what is more amazing is that that grade 4 teacher (Mrs.Knapp) was the best teacher I ever had.
In my opinion, the issue isn’t class size. It’s unions who have convinced the teachers that they are not able to teach if their student numbers are too high.
The problem is, it’s “public education”. How did we get to this point? It seems to me that we got here because there is no bottom line.
We pay for our childrens education through taxes. Our kids are only in the system for a short time and then we (parents) are off to some more pressing issue. Public education does not keep our feet to the fire.
Education is mostly a temporary thing for Canadians. How could it improve when for many it’s almost a babysitting service?
The problems are deep and systematic. Here in AB school principals are part of the union. How or why should that be? Are principals not part of management? Are they not expected to lead, develop budgets provide direction? Or just commiserate in the staff room?
Many, probably the majority of public school teachers are well intentioned. They got into teaching for all the right reasons. Along the way something went wrong. A correction is certain to take place. I have no idea how or what form it will take, but the public will not be held hostage by teachers unions forever.
Frank Q, ditto here except for grades one and two that were spent in a one room school here in Saskatchewan. In Ontario, in elementary school, I was in classes that generally numbered in the low forties.
What bothers me the most though, is knowing that many of the teachers are trying to fill our kids and gkids with all sorts of socialist ideology.
There’s one solution to the BC teachers strike and that’s to fire all of the teachers and replace them with minimum wage babysitters. I expect that without all of the “social justice” crap that is being taught that kids will be way better off. Private schools are the answer but first it’s necessary to totally break the communist teachers union.
On my way to work the last couple of days noticed groups of what I presume to be teachers holding up signs saying “It’s for the children”. Let them know what I thought of them with an upraised middle finger as I drove by.
ALL union membership should be voluntary. There is no such thing as a “bargaining unit” — it’s what Ayn Rand referred to an anti-concept.
And all education should be privatized. Start with a voucher system.
Here in Ontariario, unless you have children in the school, you have no say….etc.
But in this day and age of 2 income families they have a thingy called “emergency contact.”
Although I have no children, in or out of school, I am the emergency contact for several nearby families. The teachers/principals just hate that……it’s sort of a power of attorney parent. More official standing than a “block parent’.
It is legal for the school bus to drop the designated kids at my driveway…..
When the one kid arrived with busted teeth….I had authority to call the Police and file a complaint……which I promptly did.
Turns out a kid, visible minority, sucker punched. The principal was aware but did nothing. After my intercesion he suspended both assailant and victim 3 days for “fighting”. Then the principal’s nightmare really began.
Hey……everybody has to have a hobby……