“prep time, full pay for maternity and disability leave, more professional days, less classroom teaching time, more extended health benefits including acupuncture, massage therapy, fertility treatments and significant changes to remuneration for teachers on call are just some of the issues being negotiated.
I suspect that these issues are not on the agenda of a significant number of teachers but their own union rules prevent them from speaking out. Rule 8 of the BCTF Code Of Ethics clearly states, “The teacher acts in a manner not prejudicial to job actions or other collective strategies of her or his professional union.” Speaking out against the decisions of the union leadership clearly violates this order and opens the teacher up to disciplinary action.”
Hey, doesn’t everybody need unlimited massages?
So……..
They want more “prep time” and “professional days” (more time to get READY to work), less classroom teaching time” (less time to work), and “full pay for maternity and disability leave” (more pay for NOT to work). All things that promote a better learning environment for the children.
In addition, they want taxpayers to pay for them to have massages, acupunctures, and fertility treatments that costs thousands of dollars.
Let them rot on that miserable picket-line.
Hey Christy Clark in BC … your province has a half-million HOSTAGES being held…by self-srving unionists!
So just whom has been elected to be in charge charge in BC ….. CHRISTY ?
You or UNIONISTAS?
So, how is any of this stuff helping the students without whom they’d have no jobs?
It may be time for parents and anyone else in the communities where teacher’s decide to strike for their own benefits to take over the schools, grab the curriculum and start teaching, home schooling using the schools we all pay for. I’m betting there are lots of retired people who would be able to take on the job. Let the greedy slugs have a dose of strike pay until it hurts. I’d be happy to volunteer.
It was a calculated and cynical ploy on the part of the government to give the parents $40 a day to have their children looked after, but it was brilliant tactically speaking.
The union proposed binding arbitration, and the government told them to GFY. Why would a union offer binding arbitration and the government refuse it? Because the government knows that the union is getting desperate and that the government is going to win this and that there is no point in risking an arbitrator reaching a decision that is more favorable to the union. Correct me if I am wrong good people, but to my recollection, this could be the first time that a provincial government faced down a teacher’s union and come out on top.
Ontario, take note.
Zees teachas vill follow oh das … Or no massages ….
Sheep. Gutless, neutered sheep.
Everyone paying property taxes being extorted by these union shitbags should be boiling tar and lighting torches – how long are we going to bend over for this type of insanity – most of all people with no school age kids whose property taxes are funding this commie cluster frig – you’d think the resentment of being robbed would cause some reaction , but no – another reactionless outrage – like the left coasters have had so much of this perverse union pillage that there is no more emotion to give – it just continues unabated.
The BC teachers strike isn’t about pay and it isn’t about improving education. It’s about power, with the teachers and the children caught in the middle The BCTF wants to control class size and set minimum staffing levels for aides and specialists. The government does not want to give them that control.
For example lets look at class size. The current class size maximums for grades 8-12 is 30 students. The BCTF wants that set at 28 students for Sept 2014 and 2015 then decreasing to 27 students in 2016. Is that really going to improve the education our students get? No it won’t but it will sure cost taxpayers a lot of money, in addition to other increases in wages and benefits. (That $5000 signing bonus adds insult to injury.)
I do not want a union running our education system. We elect representatives to do that. The government, our representatives, need to de-fang the BCTF by going Scott Walker on them. End forced union membership for teachers and stop collecting union dues on behalf of the union. It worked in Wisconsin and it will work here. Then our elected representatives should legislate the teachers back to work and put an end to this nonsense.
Why is there always a signing bonus attached to contracts?
And 5000? That is more than a 10% raise…
I can just imagine walking into the bosses office and demanding 5000 for agreeing to come to work.
Up front no less. As teachers are not required to work the contract. They can walk away from the job a day after. That is not the way a contract works between me and my employer.
Here’s an honest teachers’ union leader:
National Education Association’s retiring top lawyer, Bob Chanin, speaking at the NEA’s annual meeting in July, 2009:
“Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baM8N24K8kE
It has been my observation over the years, that when a group starts to strike often, then that profession is going the way of the dinosaur. Drywall was invented in the late 50’s because of all the strikes by the plasterers – anyone can install drywall (a bit more skill is needed to install on ceilings). Again, there were many strikes by the milkmen in the early 60’s – we now buy our eggs and milk in the grocery store, no more home deliveries.
The teachers in the public school seem to strike ever 3 or 4 years in all of the provinces. It is my belief that more parents will be sending their children to private or charter schools and sucking up the extra expense, so that they will not have to deal with this nonsense and being held to ransom all the time. OT, I also think that Canada Post will be a much smaller presence in 10 years, again because of all the strikes. With the last strike in 2012, I had all my bills delivered on-line and I pay them on-line. Enough withe all this nonsense!
Hopefully Christy Clark holds firm on this. No doubt we will soon discover if, as in Alberta and Ontario, the teacher union to some extent has control over the government.
Our son lives in Chilliwak and the teachers he knows are not happy with the union’s positions. Well I would suggest to them if they are really upset they should go the union meetings and vote out the Marxists that continually force these unreasonable demands.
For what it is worth, his is FYI…. An email which I just sent to BC’s Christy Clark a short time ago is below the dotted line
………………………………………………………………………………………………
DEAR PREMIER CHRISTY CLARK
Children in Your province are being held hostage by SELF SERVING UNIONS!
As elected persons it is NOW up to your government to free the young people from SELF SERVING UNIONISTAS!
There is a place in HEAVEN for YOU if you come down on the side of the CHILDREN …..NOW …. and FIRE THE UNION DOMINATED TEACHERS, FIRE THE SELF-SERVING BASTARDS!!!
DO AS I SAY….
I AM,
Joe Molnar
in Woodstock Ontario, Canada
One has to appreciate SOCIAL MEDIA, eh?
On. Line. Education.
This will be settled, but for once, we have a government holding firm and telling the BCTF, a firm “NO”, while also not forcing them back to work, at least not quite yet.
In previous disputes, the government has always forced them back within a week, because “the kids education is precious”, or some such nonsense.
This time, the government, rightly, is telling the BCTF they won’t be legislated back (that’s how they got into the lawsuit business), and of course, the “smarter than everyone” spent all their strike funds on the legal fees for the lawsuit.
There is no strike pay, and some teachers have not had a paycheque since early June. Nice stragedy teachers.
At this point, the governments strategy is to let them rot, and why not. Give the BCTF what they want, a strike, without any pay. A few more weeks, even a month, or two, will teach them a lesson, and give them the spanking that they have been yearning for.
There is dissension in the ranks too. The elementary school down the road was not picketed at all last week. At the high schools, the pickets are thin, and by noon, they are all gone. Their support numbers are dropping, as it should, but…..from the article comes this gem Robert……….
“I suspect that these issues are not on the agenda of a significant number of teachers but their own union rules prevent them from speaking out. Rule 8 of the BCTF Code Of Ethics clearly states, “The teacher acts in a manner not prejudicial to job actions or other collective strategies of her or his professional union.” Speaking out against the decisions of the union leadership clearly violates this order and opens the teacher up to disciplinary action.”
Next time someone tells yopu unions are “democratic” remind them of this! This is why you don’t hear of teachers openly speaking out. I have talked to a couple, and friends who know some all say the same. They are not supportive of this any more, but are being held hostage by their union.
Agreed Big Momma. These strikes are the best argument there is for voucher systems with control over the actual schooling to be taken out of the hands of the government and teachers’ unions. A country with one of the most effective school systems in the world, Singapore, does not even have compulsory education. Legislation of class sizes, work hours etc. are simply surrogates which don’t always correlate particularly well with the real objective which should be education quality. Let the parents decide which charter or private schools are best meeting the needs of their children. Schools unable to keep their teaching staff happy with the resulting strikes and unrest will soon lose their students and thereby their funding. Schools able to deliver high quality education, regardless of class size and teacher perks will draw the students and the funding.
The BCTF is a dinosaur. Venture capitalists are pouring 100’s of millions of dollars into funding education ventures that are employing technology in clever ways to deliver teaching. Private schools are booming. Home tutoring is becoming commonplace.
As for teachers not speaking out, there are what 40,000 of them? And of that large number not even a few 100 are willing to speak up? Shows you what a bunch of singled-minded cowardly sheep they are.
The BCTF should be run out of business and the government is playing their hand very well in that regard.
And every last teacher should be fired, and only those who want to act like professionals and grownups should be hired back.
One thing is for absolute certain: this is the last hurrah of the BCTF. With the changing scene in education they will never again be able to hold families and children hostage for their own selfish ambitions.
I don’t care if they strike goes to Christmas if that’s what it takes to destroy the BCTF.
.” Speaking out against the decisions of the union leadership clearly violates this order and opens the teacher up to disciplinary action.”
That piece of crap would stand up about 3 seconds in a court of law.Oh wait.Teachers aren’t taught in 4 years how to think for themselves.Jamie nails it with his comment.
To Big Momma. I reposted your comment at metanoodle.blogspot.ca
Home schooling and private schools look better all the time.
The kids are being USED here by the teachers’ union and parents have joined their myopic bandwagon. The teachers protesting don’t get a “power-fist,” as one news article put it, from me.
Big Momma – you missed one of the biggest ones. Diesel started to displace coal for trains and ships at a time when the existing infrastructure was set up for coal, costs were comparable, and coal supplies were numbers in the decades if not centuries. Why switch? Coal was heavily unionised and the unions would regularly strike for the same reasons as listed above. Suppliers knew that these disruptions would continue, and looked for an alternative. The unions were so successful at serving their base that they did themselves out of a large portion of their business.
So in addition to not agreeing to binding arbitration, the government won’t be legislating them back to work? And now support is starting to wan at the BEGINNING of the school year?
“Let them rot” is right!
How long before we start to see “scabs” starting to cross by the busloads?
There is no strike pay, and some teachers have not had a paycheque since early June
Unless I am not mistaken, a portion of their pay cheques are deducted to pay for the summer months that they are off, and they get payed in July and August. It is this way in Ontario, at least.
That is an option that they can choose out here, 10 moths or 12 months pay, pro-rated
AT least that what the minister has said, and given the history, it would be no surprise.
However, they will either be told to go back via LRB order of “Essential Service”, which has been previously determined, or, they will backtrack a little and say its in the best interests of the students (which it is!) to legislate the marxists back to work, likely extending last years’ contract, so as to avoid another legal battle, as much as possible.
As far as the existing legal battle, I can’t see a better example for a government to impose the Notwithstanding Clause.
We can thank the corrupt and crony NDP government of the late 90s for this mess, who paid off their union cronies when it was clear they would be anihilated in the election of 2001, and they were!
A big part of the problem is that the BCTF does not seem to understand the term “binding”. They want to go to “binding” arbitration and yet they want to be able to take whatever a mediator might come up with to a vote of the members. If it’s binding then it’s binding period – no vote, If the government said they had to take a binding settlement back fro a vote, Iker and his band would go ballistic. Sorry Iker, you can’t have it both ways. And on top of that when Peter Cameron asked for Iker for the BCTF proposal in writing, Iker says there is nothing in writing. What is that about. Maybe they all missed the class on basic bargaining ways and how to proceed.
“Nothing in writing”. You know what that says? That this union was only prepared for a very short strike and now they don’t know how to gauge the government’s very adamant response. Going on strike when they did they were banking on the parents to bring pressure to bear on the government after summer just finishing and thus the government would cave.
LOL Their union shit the bed large here, and there is going to be a reckoning for it.
I’ve been told that some school districts offer that option and others do not. For example, North Vancouver School District does NOT offer teachers the option to be paid all 12 months of the year.
So there are certainly some teachers/districts that have not seen a paycheque since June.
And from a conversation I had with a friend whose sister is a teacher – there are some teachers who simply never learned the life lesson about budgeting 10 months of pay over 12 months and are in dire straights. Boo Hoo.
Yes, that may very likely be, a district to district thing.
And, yeah, boo-hooo, INDEED! The union had their members so hyped up and mesmerized, the common sense part of their brain switched off. Typical of the union crowd, HOW could the union EVER be wrong, or misleading?
Once you’ve been burned by a union, being lied to, or seen their exaggeration up close and personal, you should never be fooled again. Learned my lesson 25 years ago, and I will never forget.
Never trust the union, or their appendage, the NDP or the CCPA
“LOL Their union shit the bed large here, and there is going to be a reckoning for it.”
Every step of the way, the BCTF has taken the poorest strategic position or move they could take.
But hey! The teachers keep telling us how brilliabt they are.
They live in a big echo chamber……
Tactically, this group of bozos gives the Keystone Cops a run for their money!
I am conflicted in that posters on this blog criticise journalists for shallow research. On this issue none of you have actually found what is the hidden heart of the issue and it is this.
“A B.C. Supreme Court judge has twice ruled the province violated teachers’ charter rights when it passed legislation in 2002 that removed hundreds of clauses related to class size and class composition from their collective agreement and prohibited those issues from being bargained in the future. The rulings retroactively restored the deleted clauses.”
In 2002 this government, in the form of then education minister Christy Clerk, tore up the teacher’s contract and the nurse’s contract. Teachers overnight had an increase of 25% work load without compensation. This government quietly settled with the nurses to the tune of $80 million (taxpayer’s money.)
The above suit is what the government wants to go away, quietly. If they lose again and keep losing all the way to the supreme court this is going to cost them a lot of money and that has got them scared. If the BCTF folds and lets the issue die then Christy looks good, if the government loses then Christy has egg on her face and her ego cannot take that. She will be a lame duck premier and her dream of being a queen, the longest serving BC premier, takes a kick in her glib butt.
So I ask you if you would sign a contract with a government that has a history of tearing up contracts it doesn’t like. If you support the government with the argument ‘they were elected to govern’ then I expect you will accept Trudeau and the damage he will wreak.
What we have in BC is a moderately socialist government (advocates for socialized education) being challenged for leadership of the province by a union appendage of a more socialist party by keeping most school aged kids out of the socialist school system over a group of ridiculously fat contract demands. Ultimately when maximum political advantage can be gained, the moderately socialist government that legitimately represents the people will order the union back to work. Socialism is premised on coercion after all and it’s about time that one group of socialists taught the other a lesson.
Personally, it should all be privatized but you all know that.
So what do you have to say about a union controlled party, the NDP, giving a sweetheart deal, to one of its fellow brethren/puppet masters, in effect, abdicating control of education, to a clearly farleft union?
One which the taxpayers have to sign a blank cheque, all the while, enrollment is declining? On this one, I am all for making the BCTF bleed, and bleed often. They have gotten the fight they have always wanted, yet they piss and moan all the same.
Yes, this fight is fir control of the education system, and the union can never be allowed to win.
The turnout for the strike vote was less than 50%. I have no pity for some idiot teachers who claim they did not support this. Why didn’t they vote no? I think they don’t support losing and they thought this would all be over with a quick government surrender. Once the $40 a day plan was announced heads started exploding.
Norm, governments have the right to repeal legislation. Look what the Conservatives did to the Wheat Board. Sometimes it is the initial legislation that was flawed.
Unions have no qualms with being political, spending time and money to elect those who will pay them back (Redford). Whenever the opportunity is there, governments should not hesitate in trimming the power and influence of unions in order to protect democracy.
As a professional if I didn’t like the contract, I wouldn’t sign it. I’d go work somewhere else.
I’m in B.C. and I know it’s just silly coincidence, but yesterday while walking through a nice neighbourhood after a hike, a young kid was offering lemonade for sale. I like entrepreneurs so I bought a drink from him. In conversation he told me his parents were holding a garage sale and sure enough, there they were just a few doors away. I asked him how he felt about missing school and he said he’d like to be back with his friends and that both his parents are teachers.
A kid out hustling drinks while his teacher parents are selling off the family clothes. I smiled, wished him luck and whistled as I walked on.
When they talk about funding massages, do they mean GTA Jack Layton style?