Teachers Boss Rejects Government Contract Strips
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 11:19 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The head of the Prince George District Teachers Association says the longest running teachers’ strike in B.C. history has now passed the five-month mark and its contract with the government has been open for ten months. But PGDTA President Matt Pearce says the B.C. Teachers Federation has been highly successful in its primary goal of making certain students are not held hostage in the contract dispute.
Speaking on the Meisner program on CFIS-FM, Pearce says “one of the criticisms of teacher job action in the past has been that it involves the kids too much and that’s been a fair criticism. So this time around the teachers said can we take a job action that affects our employer and keeps our kids and parents as much out of the middle of it as we possibly can. And we think we have been very successful….our job action has made sure that every minute of instructional time from September till now has occurred. Parents have been informed of the progress of their children. Parents have commented that they’re never had more contact with teachers than during this job action.” Pearce says the teachers are in Phase 1 of their job action. He says further action could include more withdrawal of service and ultimately a complete withdrawal of services however no decision has been made on those points as yet and both scenarios would go back to the full membership for a vote.
Pearce says the teachers’ action is having some impact however the government is refusing to bargain in good faith. He says the bargaining process is ongoing with a 73rd meeting today. However he says while the teachers are placing new proposals on the table and removing others, they have not received a single counter-proposal to anything they have proposed. Pearce says the government is at the table with a net zero mandate but they’re also armed with a number of massive contract strips. He says “this is ten years almost to the day that they illegally stripped our contract with Bills 27 and 28. We’re not interested in further contract strips. We’ve endured ten years of large classes of unsupported students and those were all done illegally and the government still has not answered the court’s decision that came out last year on the illegality of their actions in 2002. We’re concerned that they’ve got these strips on the table and they might just do it again.” Pearce concludes by saying “we hope that one day they’ll show up in good faith.”
Comments
Good for the teachers!
100% support from this guy and his household.
With two kids of my own in the school system, I completely agree that there has been no impact on them at all. If it comes down to a complete withdrawal of services, they can keep expecting my support, and I would hope that other parents focus their frustrations on the party that is responsible for all this.
THE GOVERNMENT!!
All public workers have a target on them because taxpayers cant afford to pay what we are paying.
Teachers are public workers. End of story.
Blaming Government and/or Corporations is just getting so old but while we are at it I blame gravity for making the number on my scale to high! Im not to fond of trees for having leaves either.
12 years of this Liberal Government. Just pay attention to the young people that have exited and/or still in public schools.
15 to 20 yr. old that cannot add, subtract or perform simple tasks of managing a bank account or cheque book. When your out shopping one day just play a little harmless word game. Ask them to spell physique or clarity and watch for the confusion.They can’t even count your change back without a calculator. My point is, is that these kids are the one’s that are going to be running your Country and Province or managing your store’s profits. LOL gotta love them Liberals, they don’t even realize the effect that they’re leaving on these young people. I always tell these young people ” It’s ok your only a product of this Liberal Government”.
Weâve endured ten years of large classes of unsupported students ( Product of the Liberal Government)
My kids have not quite graduated and they can do all of those things Hammy… There are alot of bright kids out there. If little Johnny cant spell its a bit of a stretch to blame the Liberal government. I know of guys who graduated ten years ago that cant spell or do math. They would have schooled under NDP rule so they should be geniouses I guess – what happened?
Hammy, during the NDP decade things weren’t any better. Some teachers had to bring paper and pencils to schools because the supplies budget was exhausted. You could have conducted the same “little harmless word game” anytime during the nineties and even before that time, with the same dismal results!
The ones that WANT to learn, WILL learn. The ones that goof off and WON’T learn, will NOT!
Ask any frustrated teacher!
The taxpayer can afford only so much! That’s us! The political blame game is a worn out tactic, imho.
Funding per student has been rising steadily over the last decade. That’s a fact.
What’s next? Ten students in each class or, even better, one on one intensive tutoring?
The same problems exist in the US of A. The No Child Left Behind initiative, inspite of all the untold billions poured into it has been a complete failure (CNN).
It’s a phenomenon of modern western society and all its permissiveness and aimlessness.
The ones that WANT to learn, WILL learn. The ones that prefer to goof off WON’T learn!
No amount of money will change that!
The Liberal Gov could care less. They rip up contracts. Ignore Supreme court orders.
The teachers will be on strike until the Libs are voted out. The Libs have no intention of trying to resolve the issues. They only look after their corporate buddies, they seem to have no end of money for them.
Amen acrider54…amen!
You can’t be serious Hammy. Blaming the Libs because Johnny can’t read. Teachers strikes always bring the partisans out of the wood work. right Acrider?
Enrollment is down pretty much everywhere and the teachers latest demands would cost BC Taxpayers in the neighborhood of $1 Billion if met.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the work teachers do, but something doesn’t add up here.
I have to agree with Papermaker, and side wholeheartedly with the teachers. The government needs to put the money into things that matter (to me), such as education and healthcare, and quit wasting so much on crap that doesn’t matter (to me). They could find the $ to pay for salaries for teachers and healthcare providers if they were to cut the spending on raises for themselves, and endless administration.
My gr. 8 child can do those things you mentioned, Hammy, except maybe manage a cheque book, which is kind of useless now that cheques are close to extinct. Our kid will know how to budget before leaving home though, because we will teach it. We don’t need to rely on the school to be responsible for every single lesson our children need to be competent adults. People who expect that are the reason that teachers deserve every dime they are paid, and then some.
Health and Education eat up 70% of the Provincial Budget. How much more do you want to pay?
what does health spending have to do with this article?
for most of us we have had role models,some may have been sports superstars and maybe some had scientific backgrounds but what I see now gives me reason for concern,This is what I see,leaders,either in government or business abusing their positions for self betterment,showing the younger generation that if you gain power you can rip up contracts,It is OK to deceive and you do not have to explain your actions,you make your own rules to suit your needs. As for the education system in this province the only that really seem to understand how it should work are the ones directly involved,the teachers. I have had first hand experiences with the inabilities of students these days,difficulty adding,counting back change and even some cases of word pronouncing, they would all fail.For those of you that are critical of teachers and think they only work eight months of year and get all kinds of holidays, I would like to suggest you get to know a teacher before you judge them.
On a totaly differant topic, I know we are not great fans Of McLeans magazine but this months lists 99 things the governments of Canada wasted money on
Bottom line
The government passed illegal legislation and has assaulted the education system since 2001.
Illegal legislation cost BC taxpayers a $75 million dollar fine with the nurses union — enforced by the courts.
This government has $500+ million for a roof for BC place and not a cent for illegal contact stripping?
The Liberals bargain in bad faith and put the tax payers in a position of jeopardy by passing Constitutionally Illegal legislation.
Think about that
Boy, you guys are easily riled…..
Did you not READ the part Pearce said;
Weâve endured ten years of LARGE CLASSES of UNSUPPORTED STUDENTS and those were all done ILLEGALLY and the GOVERNMENT still has not answered the courtâs decision that came out last year on the ILLEGALITY OF THEIR ACTIONS in 2002.
And the game is MY GAME that I play!
And YES, THE LIBERALS ARE TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING, In MY Opinion…..
Speaking of things that have nothing to do with the article, BC Place was getting a roof no matter who was in power.
My point about health spending was that if the teachers want a bigger slice of the pie (about $1 Billion worth), it’s going to have to come from somewhere.
So, if you believe the teachers;
1) Paying them more will lead to a better education for K-12 students? HOW?
It seems that everybody, including teachers, want to be paid more, but that nobody wants to PAY more for their goods and services.
I played those spelling and math brain teaser games with young people twenty years ago. One distressing thing I found every time I ‘tortured’ those poor kids with inane questions is that they had no grasp of volumes-weights-measures, in either metric or Imperial, none. Most of them could not tell a centimetre from a bushel, much less spell words. Dumb? not at all. I would consider most of them intelligent and capable of learning. They were a product of the education system in B.C. One could always argue that parents have to play a role, well it used to be that we learned the basics of the 3 R’s in elementary school, with or without a parent at home to fill in the blanks. What happened? Are those kids from 20 + years ago the current governments fault too?
If the gov’t gives B.C. teachers the moon, or whatever they demand, will the kids be more ready to become functioning and contributing members of Canadian society? Just asking…
metalman.
hammy, you’re wrong about the kids. They can spell and read and write. They choose drugs and booze –they’re young — they’ll get over it. Don’t blame the teachers cause your kids do drugs and party all the time. Don’t blame the teachers for them not doing their best in school. The actual “learning” is the parents responsibility. The giving of information and the environment is the governments responsibility. The government is closing schools because the people are not having kids. So get busy and do your part — have some kids.
JohnnyBelt the billion dollar figure comes from the Libs check out the teachers view, it’s considerably lower.
What do the teachers say the cost will be, acrider?
I was watching the Global TV news the other night and they were interviewing the honcho from the Teachers Union and she claimed it would be way less (wracking my brain) 3 million comes to mind.
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