Strike Could Be Followed By Other Measures In Teacher Dispute
Thursday, March 1, 2012 @ 10:19 AM
Prince George, B.C. – Public school teachers across B.C. have served notice that they plan to walk off the job for three days next week in their continuing 10-month contract dispute with the provincial government.
The B.C. Teachers Federation served the government with strike notice at 6 this morning. Earlier this week the Labour Relations Board ruled the teachers could legally strike for three days in the opening week of a full-scale walkout but would have to provide the government with two working days notice of their intention to strike. That has now been done, paving the way for a walkout Monday. Teachers are not allowed to set up picket lines or block other unions from entering schools during the strike. Last night the BCTF announced teachers province-wide had voted 87 percent in favour of striking to press their demand for a new contract. The government has introduced Bill 22, intended to impose a cooling-off period in the dispute. Its passage before Monday would derail a legal strike, however passage of the legislation is not expected before later next week.
The President of the Prince George and District Teachers Association, Matt Pearce, says while teachers have served strike notice, if the government came to them and said they wanted to negotiate instead of legislate teachers would certainly reconsider their position. “But”, Pearce adds, “they haven’t wanted to talk to us for ten months so I don’t hold out much hope that’ll start all of a sudden. We expect Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week we’ll be on the lines and not in the classrooms.”
Pearce does not expect the job action will get beyond the three-day walkout next week. He says “the government is very intent on stripping our collective agreement using Bill 22. The so-called mediation process buried within the bill is a very clever ruse. It’s a stripping process. The terms the mediator will work under are designed to eliminate many, many, many clauses from our collective agreement as they did in 2002. We understand, our legal opinion is that the legislation is illegal. Unfortunately it will take us some time to get to court, months if not years. In the meantime they will strip our agreement and so we are on strike and this may be the first of many things that will happen around this.”
School District 57, meantime, is advising parents to closely monitor their website for the very latest information regarding the schools. That site is www.sd57.bc.ca.
Comments
The BC government is treating the teachers badly in this case. They’re acting like dictators! The BCTF is right. The government is enacting a bill that will see the teachers lose many of the gains they’ve seen in the last 10 years. It’s not right.
Government can do whatever they want? They did that to EI federally, and I thought that was unfair. If you’ve worked and paid into EI, you should get it, period. We got stuck with the new EI legislation, same as the BCTF is getting shafted with Bill 22.
The BCTF have a right to strike, and I say they should. I’d strike, too. There’s no way my employer is going to tell me that, as a slave, I am to do what I’m told. There’s no way they’ll dictate to me what is fair. I’m supplying a service. I’ll say what’s fair!
Legislation so that the teachers can’t strike? What kind of democracy is this, anyway?
So with the teachers about to go on strike, I decided to read the collective agreement just to see how bad they have it. Now I know teachers are a very important part of society, so I am not cutting down the importance of them. This is more for the ones that donât appreciate just what they have. So after reading their entire last agreement {stamped final Nov. 27 2009} these are the highlights I found.
Pay increases, july 1/06= 2.5% increase, 2007 = 2.5% , 2008= 2.5% , 2009= 2.5%, 2010= 2.0%
Elementary teachers hours of instruction, max 1425 mins/week or 23.75 minus 90 minutes for prep.
Secondary teachers, 1545 max mins/week or 25.75 hours minus 3.2 hours prep.
Regular work year goes from the first Tuesday after Labour day, to the last Friday of June. Thatâs well over 2 months off right there.
Plus a one week winter break, plus a one week spring break, and all the regular holidays that the majority of people actually get.
So teachers essential work 9 months a year on average with shorter days and weekends off. Not bad
The lowest paid full time teacher gets around $42000 with the highest around $82000 not including allowances for things like first aid attendants and other positions.
Now again, my kids have had some great teachers and I am thankful for that, but too say they had it so bad is ridiculous.
The tax pool isnât an endless pit of money that is there to enrich the lives of public service union employees that Iâm going to guess 15 -20% or less of the work force. Yeah we could have more teachers, nurses, firefighters etcâ¦. We could fix all the pot holes in the streets too, but where does all that money come from? Somethingâs gotta give. Be careful what you wish for.
Someone’s living in Mister Rogers neighborhood!
hehe… a matter of opinion there, fatfletch. I could say you live on the dictator side of 1984… but, I won’t, cause it would be a gross exaggeration, wouldn’t it.
I’m all for strikes. It shows the government and employers that they can’t just do whatever they want.
The teachers cannot picket but there are lots of other union members in this town. :-)
Good luck getting those other union members to do anything . At least until it directly affects them.
Jim13135, I hope so! Would be good to see people coming together to support one another.
WHERE IS THE MONEY?
A province running on all cylinders, forestry, oil and gas, coal in the northeast, minning, an Olympic bonanza, no complaints from the fishermen.
A reduction in corporate tax over 11 years from 16.5% to 10%, and all sectors in the province running flat out. I thought that all these jobs would more than make up the tax that the corporations were no longer paying.
Shouldn’t all this mean that the province should be flushed with money?
But wait didn’t our finance minister say last week that he might have to raise corporate taxes by 1%, because the province needed money? Isn’t that against everything the conservative liberals believe in? After all wouldn’t raising corporate tax absolutely kill any economic growth in our province?
Or is it that the Consevative philosophy NOT REALLY WORK!!!
Oh, and we are still paying the HST!!!
I don’t get it…..can a Consevative/BC Liberal supporter please explain it to me cause I can’t figure out where all this money has gone??
It’s not so much where the money has gone as it is : how much didn’t come in because of that massive corporate tax cut. Ask a Liberal how much income they gave up with that boondoggle?? Bet you won’t get a straight answer.
Forestry is not running on all cylinders! Half the mills in the north have shut down and there have been hundreds of jobs lost since the recession started in 2008…so yeah,it might be hard to feel sorry for teachers who were still getting raises, when forestry workers were getting pay cuts or laid off.
Teachers. **We want more**
Government ** You cant have it**
Teachers. Whaaaaaaaaa.
Government. There. there, its going to be OK.
Teachers. Sniff, Sniff.
Government..Shsssssh. Remember we are all getting paid by the same taxpayers so we dont want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Lets all go back to work, and reap the benefits.
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