Board of Education for SD57 Sends Letter to Minister of Education
Thursday, March 8, 2012 @ 4:25 AM
The scene last evening at Civic Centre Plaza as Teachers and supporters gathered for a special rally
Prince George, B.C.- As hundreds of teachers and their supporters gathered at the Civic Centre Plaza last evening to share support for their job action, the Board of Education for School District 57 has sent a letter to the Ministry of Education.
The letter calls for the appointment of “an independent mediator, mutually agreed to by both parties” and that the Government “remove restrictions introduced in Bill 22 that limit the mediator’s ability to engage both parties in thoughtful and constructive negotiations.”
The request was developed at an in camera meeting of the Board on Monday.
In the letter, Board Chair Sharel Warrington states that Bill 22 “ significantly limits the ability of a mediator to enable the constructive bargaining discussions required to conclude a fairly negotiated collective agreement.”
Warrington goes on to say “The legislated implications of Bill 22 have increased the tension between the employer and its teachers.”
The letter says SD57 has enjoyed a “long history of collaborative working relationships with its education partners, the Board of education values that relationship.” Board Chair Warrington concludes “Our organization is strongest when all educational partners are working together to address educational challenges and to meet the needs of our students”.
Comments
The Libs will do anything they can to tell everyone where to go. After all they only work for themselves and their corporate friends, the voters can take a flying leap.
We in Prince george support our teachers and they are valued workers in our community. They deserve a fair negotiated wage just the same as any other worker in our town. They certainly don’t need to be legeslated by a few self serving individuals such as the Liberals who sold our BC Rail and introduced the much hated HST and many other insane ideas which cost extravazgant amounts of tax payers dollars.
I would be more inclined to support them if their fight was reasonable. But When I hear they are demanding compassion leave of 6 days to grieve for the passing of a friends mother or some scenario like that. The 15% wage increase has to come from somewhere, so here go our taxes again. The whole myth about the TA’s is media hype . I do not even have kids in school anymore , so why should I pay more in taxes to pay for stupid stuff like that.
Better books, reasonable class sizes , more money for educational programs , fewer cuts to the school budgets, I can get on-board with , but the rest of it is out of control. I wish I had a job like that , 3 month out of the year off,all holidays off . Weekends off. And they still make more money than I do and I get paid fair.
Oh and yeh , the Liberals better step up and start showing a responsible Government as well. I do not agree with the writing new laws to get what they want, and getting more than tired of the lies and trickery from them too.
Fire them all
“We in Prince george support our teachers and they are valued workers in our community”
Please don’t try to speak for me.
Good on the school board for standing up and telling the government that its Bill 22 is way over the top, just as some say the BCTF demand for 15 percent is. Government has all but made school boards ineffective but at least they are using what voice they have left to tell the Liberals that they are part of the problem.
We’ll see if the Libs care what the grass root educators think. Don’t forget, “its all about families”.
HarleyGuy72,
And how many years did you go to university and how much did it cost you?
This is just the start.. The govt has run up huge debts lately while at the same time freezing or cutting essential services. Other public service unions watching this one like a hawk to see where the boundarys are.
About the teachers.. I support them to some degree in the sense that there needs to be more investment in the school system but they are being a bunch of greedy pigs asking for 15% increase when many of them make over 70k per year.
Our tax dollars are spent so poorly by this government in the first place if there was some accountability where and how its spent im sure there would be more money left for the education system. All of the different government sectors are given budgets at the begining of the year, and the way it works is if you dont use it all you will lose it next year. That to me sounds like wasting money, what if they got rewards or some kind of incentives for not spending the hole budget? I work in a industry where I see this march bitz to spend every last penny to make sure there budget is not chopped next year. As for the 15% i dont know any one entering into a negotiation and does not start with a high number. It seems to me that the people that think the teachers are out to lunch on there demands dont have kids or there kids are no longer in the school system. These kids are the future and if we allow the education system to get as bad as it is in some states, we are in trouble. There are graduation rates of 50% down there in some areas.That to me is a scary prospect for our future.But dont worry all the kids can learn every thing they need from facebook
Our tax dollars are spent so poorly by this government in the first place if there was some accountability where and how its spent im sure there would be more money left for the education system. All of the different government sectors are given budgets at the begining of the year, and the way it works is if you dont use it all you will lose it next year. That to me sounds like wasting money, what if they got rewards or some kind of incentives for not spending the hole budget? I work in a industry where I see this march bitz to spend every last penny to make sure there budget is not chopped next year. As for the 15% i dont know any one entering into a negotiation and does not start with a high number. It seems to me that the people that think the teachers are out to lunch on there demands dont have kids or there kids are no longer in the school system. These kids are the future and if we allow the education system to get as bad as it is in some states, we are in trouble. There are graduation rates of 50% down there in some areas.That to me is a scary prospect for our future.But dont worry all the kids can learn every thing they need from facebook
I agree HarleyGuy72….some unreasonable requests….
It’s about time the SD stood up and showed some support for their teachers!
To speak to the filthy, uneducated masses you need to speak their language. How about this – go “net zero” on minimum wage. Roll it back to $8/hour legislate it there PERMANENTLY. Do the same with welfare.
” Posted by: Surefire on March 8 2012 6:07 AM
We in Prince george support our teachers and they are valued workers in our community. They deserve a fair negotiated wage just the same as any other worker in our town. They certainly don’t need to be legeslated by a few self serving individuals such as the Liberals who sold our BC Rail and introduced the much hated HST and many other insane ideas which cost extravazgant amounts of tax payers dollars”
You’re absolutely correct Surefire, most people do support our teachers. As they should, they babysit our children and shape them into who they will become.
There are many teacher haters and bashers that attempt to use their virus infected pea brains in forums such as 250 to attack teachers, unions and any others that are more fortunate in life than they are. These poor souls in our society probably never had a teacher in their life and they feel so frustrated they must attack what they never had access to.
Many of these sad people have no clue of the meaning of the word negotiation.
They must have been forced by their employers to submit to whatever they were told to do or lose their jobs to others that didn’t care about their families, health and welfare or personal lives. They also appear to take personal offence to anyone being able to improve their lives and that of others because they are unable to achieve a higher level in their own lives.
Jealousy can do terrible things to ones character as seen by many people who post comments in this type of forum.
These small minds think that because someone else makes more money than they do, that they have no right to ask for anymore.
Yet when multi billion dollar corporations rape consumers with the consent of our own governments, they are silent.
You know why?
Because many of them are shareholders and are raking in their share of the take and couldn’t give a crap about others. Only if it means some type of personal loss to their bank accounts does it become worthy to cry about.
You people are truly the pathetic in our society!
Teachers have it pretty good. 12 weeks of holidays a year. Job security. Full pension.
A couple years working in the real world would help them realize how things really work.
I say give them a raise. Just roll it back off the pensions they will be recieving for the rest of their lives. See what they say about that.
wow Dragonmaster you sit on a pretty righteous throne there, got everybody pigeonholed do you that disagrees or forms their own opinion. Your post goes to describe anyone not agreeing with your views as in deadend jobs, poor and jealous but ends with calling them shareholders and raking in their share ??? Bunch of gibberish, non factual, and shows you yourself harbor a bitterness and resentment you accuse everyone else of having
I agree with Dragonmaster on this one, I think he nailed it. twospeed99 you just proved what Dragonmaster said.
Jealousy? Hardly. We just get a tad annoyed when lazy people like Dragonmaster and seamutt sit there with their hands out demanding that the rest of us look after them.
A system like ours that has so many people on the government payroll cannot sustain itself forever.
read more intelligent stuff on a bathroom stall wall.
agree faxman
We in Prince George support faxman and he is a valued worker in our community.
Is that better? ;-)
I think what everyone’s missing here is the the liberal government tore up their last contract leaving the teachers going into the new school year without a contract and now they will not negotiate. They are giving the teachers a contract that they have to sign and are forcing them back to work. My mom, who’s been a teacher for 30yrs or so makes the same as my cousin in Edmonton who has been teaching for 9yrs. Our teachers are 9th in Canada for pay. B.C. is the most expensive province to live in. The teachers are saying that the pay increase is negotiable and not the main purpose for taking action.They just want their right to to negotiate
What was the hardest 4 years of faxmans life? Grade 5!!!
That is why he dislikes teachers so much.
550,000 students divided by 41,0000 teachers (BCTF facts)= 13.4 students per teacher, factor in a generous or maybe realistic 50% off on some sort of leave, still would only be 26 kids per teacher.
how does insulting someones opinion lend validity to yours. Last I looked this was an opinion board not a pro BCTF/anti Govt board.
Could it be that Dragon is one of those people who has to hide behind the skirts of the union in order to keep his job? Wants everything handed to him on a silver platter, with little or no effort on his part.
It is obvious that the BCTF does not know what the word negotiate means. Let me correct that, they have the TAKE part down pat but have yet to learn the GIVE half of the equation. So in the negotiations 101 class it looks like BCTF’s mark is about 50%, sorry not a passing grade.
” Posted by: confused on March 8 2012 9:59 AM
Teachers have it pretty good. 12 weeks of holidays a year. Job security. Full pension.
A couple years working in the real world would help them realize how things really work.
I say give them a raise. Just roll it back off the pensions they will be recieving for the rest of their lives. See what they say about that”
_________________________________
” Posted by: twospeed99 on March 8 2012 10:14 AM
wow Dragonmaster you sit on a pretty righteous throne there, got everybody pigeonholed do you that disagrees or forms their own opinion. Your post goes to describe anyone not agreeing with your views as in deadend jobs, poor and jealous but ends with calling them shareholders and raking in their share ??? Bunch of gibberish, non factual, and shows you yourself harbor a bitterness and resentment you accuse everyone else of having”
———————————
” Posted by: faxman on March 8 2012 10:39 AM
Jealousy? Hardly. We just get a tad annoyed when lazy people like Dragonmaster and seamutt sit there with their hands out demanding that the rest of us look after them.
A system like ours that has so many people on the government payroll cannot sustain itself forever”
——————————
” Posted by: twospeed99 on March 8 2012 10:41 AM
read more intelligent stuff on a bathroom stall wall”
——————————–
I REST MY CASE!
“I’m listing the salary I would have within jurisdictions in Canada that I wouldn’t mind moving to – mostly cities. I will do it for a teacher with 8 years experience with a bachelor degree + 2 year teaching degree”
http://www.nucleuslearning.com/node/3158
That is the premise of the linked page which then goes on to show the pay for a teacher with that number of years teaching and those educational credentials.
Here are the wages in order from most to least with the year the collective agreement is up in each jurisdiction.
1$87,954 2011Alberta (Calgary)
2$83,865 2011Ontario (Toronto)
3$76,547 2010Manitoba (Winnipeg)
4$73,972 2011British Columbia (Vancouver)
5$72,536 2011New Brunswick
6$72,435 2010Saskatchewan
7$69,994 2011Newfoundland
8$64,608 2011P.E.I.
9$59,644 2010Nova Scotia
10$52,435 2011Quebec (Montreal)
That does not look bad when you first look at it – 4th place out of 10.
But then here is the list when one removes the porvinces with considerable lower cost of living, especially in the big cities where the majority live.
1$87,954 2011Alberta (Calgary)
2$83,865 2011Ontario (Toronto)
3$76,547 2010Manitoba (Winnipeg)
4$73,972 2011British Columbia (Vancouver)
Actually I should probably remove Manitoba from that list as well.
You see, everyone here is looking at these salries and comparing them to PG salaries.
Well, if you want to do that, compare them to CANFOR salaries of those at CANFOR who have 6 year University degree which would be a Masters degree, such as engineering, MBA, etc.
Then add 8 years of experience to that.
You would have a hard time finding someone who makes less than in the low $70,000 range, even factoring in much of July and August “off”.
In fact, you would have a hard time finding a person with a journeyman ticket on the maintenance crew with a salary as low as that. And then there are the benefits …. can’t beat them at CANFOR either.
So, it seems to me that as a teacher teaching in Vancouver or Kelowna, and probably in Victoria and Kamloops, it would be attractive for me, if I was the moving type, to move to Alberta to get $15,000 more for my efforts and pay less taxes, and have better facilities to boot.
Amazing what blue-eyed sheiks can afford on those royalties we give them everytime the poor unwashed pay them when we fill up to drive nowhere fast, eh?
And then maybe consider Ontario, maybe not Toronto because I would be in the same cost of living situation, but Ottawa, Hamilton and the Golden triangle would give me a lower cost of living than Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and many other places.
“What was the hardest 4 years of faxmans life? Grade 5!!!
That is why he dislikes teachers so much.”
I take it you’re a product of the public school system? :)
I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for teachers; it is not a job that I would want.
What I take exception with are the ridiculous demands the union is making on their behalf.
I issued this challenge a couple of days ago and since no one replied I’ll do it again. Show me one thing on this list of demands that will in any way shape or form directly affect the classroom: http://bctf.ca/publications/BargainingBulletin.aspx?id=25138.
I don’t see anything that says anything about hiring new teachers, teacher’s assistants, special needs students, etc.
I’m all for giving them a raise but when they start saying that they’re doing this for the kids I have to call BS.
Teachers have a tough job – few dispute that. And it’s getting tougher every generation, and it’s even tougher in PG with the number of FAS kids that are streamed into the public school system. So here’s a conversation we seem loath to have.
There are in my mind three categories of special needs children.
Cat A – have normal intelligence but their barrier to learning is a handicap such as blindness, deafness, mobility etc. Seems to me chance they will succeed, pay taxes some day, not disrupt the rest of the class, makes sense society in general pays to facilitate their integration into the mainstream classroom.
Cat B – have normal intelligence but difficult to control behavior problems due to Mommy’s addiction to alcohol, crack, or what have you when they were in the womb. Teachers required to spend inordinate amounts of time controlling them to the detriment of the other students. Not the kids fault, but not the other kids fault either. You wouldn’t tolerate a co-worker with their behavioral issues in your work place, so why should your kids. Instead of hiring a TA to try and control these children, stream them to their own classroom where the emphasis is on impulse control and learning very basic skills such as reading, math and lifeskills.
Cat C do not have normal intelligence and in some cases spend their classtime moaning. Felt socially desirable to have them integrated, but no proof it’s helping the disabled kid, and definitely disrupting the other kids. Should probably be somewhere that they can be handled with a ratio better than 1 on 1, and maybe their education should be more in the form of sensory stimulus such as music.
Now try not to call me a Nazi or something, and try and instead give a reasoned argument for maintaining and paying for the current system. Remember, everything is paid for by tax dollars, and if you spend your tax dollars on the full integration theory of education, they aren’t available somewhere else – like paying OAS to seniors who may need it.
“What I take exception with are the ridiculous demands the union is making on their behalf”
Educate yourself about unions and you will learn this one very important fact among many…..
The teachers are the union and they employ the workers in the BCTF office to represent them.
This is pretty simple. The government is dictating not negotiating. What’s going to happen if the government breaks the law again? Throw Christy in jail maybe? She was education minister the last time the Liberals tore up the contract and they are about to do it again.
Gus if you throw the Territory’s into the mix, B.C. falls even farther down the list.
“When I hear they are demanding compassion leave of 6 days to grieve for the passing of a friends mother or some scenario like that.”
HarleyGuy72, you should get up to date on the current demands. The compassionate demand has been dropped along with many others.
I believe that both sides (BCTF & Gov’t) are acting like spoiled children. My god, why can’t people just act like the adults they are and settle this thing. While I am not a strong believer in unions, I do think that the government should allow both sides to choose a mediator.
I listened to Matt Pierce on the radio the other day and he didn’t sound very mature, understanding or agreeable. Granted he is angry at what is happening but still, he represents the union here in PG and needs to be able to behave in a more mature manner. Not helping your cause sir.
“give a reasoned argument for maintaining and paying for the current system.”
I understand what you are talking about. However, in order to respond with some rational thought behind it, I would need to know much more about the integrated system of social services provided by government.
Schooling is one part of that system.
Schooling can be provided in an integrated fashion or a segregated fashion. You are basically advocating a segregated system.
The thing I need to know is what was the TOTAL cost to society of handling this in a segregated fashion? In other words, the cost of the early teaching years of K to 12, in a segregated system versus the current integrated system, PLUS the follow up years after the end of the normal schooling period taking them right through the rest of their lives. What special care/costs are involved then, and is there a difference as a result of one system over another?
This, as well as taking people out of institutions and giving them the new drugs and putting them out on the street to be integrated with the rest of society is really all part of the same approach, if one wants to look at it that way.
I think all of this change happened because new drugs allowed it to happen, because in many cases people were better off not institutionalized, and it is likely considerably cheaper.
Finally, one needs to turn aside from the finacial consideration a bit and consider the human consideration. Are those special needs individuals better off both emotionally and physically? Are more able to live a more “humane” lifestyle? If so, and it does prove to cost a bot more than the previous system of segregation, then we have to measure whether it is worth it. I think that is kind of a no brainer to most compassionate people.
I am not involved with the special needs social scene So I really cannot provide an informed opinion on this. However, I gave some opinions about what information I would need to do that.
Unlike many others on here and elsewhere, I am refraining from a knee jerk reaction.
“Gus if you throw the Territory’s into the mix, B.C. falls even farther down the list”
Just to be fair, have you ever tried to live in Yellowknife, Iqaluit, etc.? It makes Vancouver and Toronto look like Bolivia for cost of living.
Pub fare
http://www.frobisherinn.com/userfiles/file/Storehouse%20Menu%20Aug%202011.pdf
groceries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz0YYkvG_Lg
So, how about being fair? Let’s not try to pull the same tactics as the teacher union and the government on this.
I think what everyone’s missing here is the the liberal government tore up their last contract leaving the teachers going into the new school year without a contract and now they will not negotiate. They are giving the teachers a contract that they have to sign and are forcing them back to work. My mom, who’s been a teacher for 30yrs or so makes the same as my cousin in Edmonton who has been teaching for 9yrs. Our teachers are 9th in Canada for pay. B.C. is the most expensive province to live in. The teachers are saying that the pay increase is negotiable and not the main purpose for taking action.They just want their right to to negotiate
” Posted by: lonesome sparrow on March 8 2012 11:19 AM
Could it be that Dragon is one of those people who has to hide behind the skirts of the union in order to keep his job? Wants everything handed to him on a silver platter, with little or no effort on his part.
It is obvious that the BCTF does not know what the word negotiate means. Let me correct that, they have the TAKE part down pat but have yet to learn the GIVE half of the equation. So in the negotiations 101 class it looks like BCTF’s mark is about 50%, sorry not a passing grade”
Could be lonesome, but not! Certified HD Mechanic, Class One Driver, Certified Forklift Trainer and a union member.
On the other hand you definately fit the description I posted above.
My mom’s pension will be $800 a month. As she is set to retire soon. An MP’s pension? $100,000 annually. I’m pretty sure our politician’s salaries have increased annually as well….
Dragonmaster: “There are many teacher haters and bashers that attempt to use their virus infected pea brains in forums such as 250 to attack teachers, unions and any others that are more fortunate in life than they are.”
And then there are those who resort to petty name calling exercises when people might have a different point of view than their own.
it’s a good thing dragonslayer that you know how to cut/paste/copy and insult or you would have nothing but your tag name in your posts.
sorry it’s Dragonmaster my bad
it’s a good thing dragonslayer that you know how to cut/paste/copy and insult or you would have nothing but your tag name in your posts.
Trying to play salary leapfrog with other provinces is a crock. If Alberta pays more, for the price of a stamp you can send an application. Like I said the other day, when a BCTF member pulls up to a gas pump in PG do they demand the price be $1.05.9 like Calgary? Wage parity with a completely different market just as crazy.
Sigh. Some things never change.
A news story about teachers in Vancouver uniting against school authorities under the subheadings âSalary question an issueâ and âOvercrowding of roomsâ made the front page of the Vancouver Daily Province.
The date? Oct. 3, 1910.
Long before the B.C. teachersâ union staged its three-day strike this week, âwomen teachersâ were publicly musing about forming a union to give them a voice in talks with the school board.
The âmore energetic young womenâ of the Womenâs Educational Club were considering âan organization through which to act with a united front.â
âDonât think for a moment that our organization is merely a selfish one, designed only to press home the salary question on the school board,â said a young unnamed teacher interviewed by the paper while the students were out for recess. âWe think we have the public with us on that question.â
She said the teachers also wanted to fight for input on other issues in schools.
âTime and again, we have suggestions to make individually but because there is no mouthpiece of the teachers, these proposals never reach the ears of the school authorities.â
A hot topic, then as now, was class size, but 100 years ago there were 60 to 65 students per room in schools in the growing outlying suburbs â Kitsilano, Fairview and Grandview.
âDozens of rooms are overcrowded to the point where it is not good for the health of the children and where it is next to impossible to get any results from teaching,â she said.
âThe teachers try to do their best, but there isnât a chance of successful work in a class of that size.â
She said there were âonlyâ 25 to 40 students in rooms in schools in the West End and in the central part of the city, which proved âvery clearly that in these sections, the population is decreasing rather than increasing.â
The teacher pointed to a need for a class size limit of 40, which she called âreasonableâ and pointed out it had been implemented in some Ontario cities.
And she said the teachers suggested easing overcrowding by having the school board set up classrooms in âknockabout cottagesâ and rented halls â portables! â while they waited for more suburban schools to be built.
The teachers were unlikely to allow male teachers, outnumbered by women 10 to 1, to join the new group because âtheir salaries were of a different basisâ and they were mostly employed as principals.
An example of how out to lunch some unions have got has stuck with me since I saw a story on the news a number of years ago
A pulp mill shut down because they were losing money(Harmac on the island if memory serves) and they were interviewing one of the new employee/owners. He seemed quite pleased with himself that now as he and other employees walked around and saw a plug up or bottleneck they did something to remedy the situation. When they were union members would ignore it and walk away with a “not my problem!” attitude
Not once did the idea get through his thick skull that if they had done that under the former owner they might still be solvent and he would not have had to take a significant wage cut to retain his job, not to mention the 30k he had to kick in to fund the purchase.
same going on in some of the mills up here that put a profit sharing clause in their renegotiated contracts, seems now they make money ??
I suggest both the Teachers and Government need to get out of the 20th Century.
We need to ask ourselves “What is school for?” and set up a system that works for the future – one that is not based on factory labour, is infinitely connected, and where facts and data are instantaneously available by all.
I think this 30,000 word manifesto by Seth Godin is required reading for anyone who cares deeply about our current situation, and what we want to do moving forward.
http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams
There has GOT to be a third way…
Wow, Harleyguy sayus he would be onboard with the teachers if they fought for class size and better books….
What the H does that have to do with a teachers contract.
Do airline pilots go on strike for better seats for the people who sit in the back of the plane?
Get a grip and don’t expect the teachers to fix the education system. That resposibility clearly resides between government and the people of BC.
Perhaps the teachers could fix global warming in this contract as well!!!!
Let me see …. in every unionized work situation one has something called “conditions of work”.
Conditions of work is something that unions will put on the negotiation table, expecially when pay is supposed to be left off.
Books are tools which are used by teachers and by students. Not all books are the same. Some are the best, some are the worst, some are manageable.
In other words, the course learning objectives may have changed overf the years and the books have not been updated to reflect those changes, thus teachers have to improvise, prepare hand outs of their own on some things, etc. etc.
Result = more time spent than is necessary.
Same with class size. It takes longer to teach a larger group than a smaller group if you give everyone equal individual time.
Obviously you are not a teacher.
You might be an automechanic. So, if your employer tells you that you have to fix more cars per month and, by the way, she can’t send you to the updating course on the new 2012 models and you will not be getting the new analyzer that really should be available for the new mechanical system in a particular model, what do you do? You are still a mechanic and you should be able to figure it out and you should be able to repair more cars because parts cost more, energy costs more, accounting costs more, ther eare more legal challenges from customers, and she simply cannot afford to pay you more and provide you with all the frills.
So, you stick it out, you try to get the other mechanics to argue the point with your boss, or you quit and move to Alberta where they have lots of oil royalty money and don’t have these problems.
So, let the mechanics deal with thier work conditions and let the teachers seal with theirs.
Simple, isn’t it?
They should have went on strike in September
To continue the mechanic analogy, the mechanic would just show you how to repair one brake and assign the other three for homework(and mark you on the results:)
The bctf is an industry, not unlike the Indian affairs department and the first nations. If your not picking a fight, your not justifying your existance.
Dragon, wow, your level of union extremism
and brainwashing is rare.
for all of the local pundits and politicos who know best about the education system and its funding, chew on this for a while:
http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2012/03/adventures-in-not-net-zero-land.html
i particularly like where the superintendent of achievement spends more on lunches than i make in a year.
as an aside, as a bctf member, i find it disheartening to see that in a town that was built on the backs of union labour, so much anti-union rhetoric is thrown around. sure, call me a bctf hack, if that makes you feel big, important, or well informed; however, do not denigrate the process of collective bargaining that has been illegally stripped from the members of my union by a government that seeks to exclude the public from debate and discourse. for those of you who do not understand the process of bargaining, a refresher course may be in order (start high and settle lower).
the actions of the liberal government have been ruled unconstitutional and represent an attack on labour, organized and non-union, across the province. if we, as the bctf do not stand up, will you be making the same statements about the heu, bcgeu, pea, physicians, pharmacists, etc. when they are bargaining with the government and attempting similar actions?
prior to becoming a teacher i worked in the ‘real world’ – heavy construction, millwork, warehousing (just to name a few), and i can tell you that rigging a crane and pouring 400 cubic meters of concrete in a day was a lot less taxing on the body and brain than working with 120 students, 25 of whom are ministry designated special needs, and thirty more who need rigourous one on one assistance, every day. would i go back…not on your life. teaching is way more fulfilling, even if it is less lucrative.
as politicians continue to make financial decisions that are contrary to the interests of the province as a whole, those who stand up will be counted – those who do not will continue to whine and bitch. i choose to stand up and be counted. it isn’t always about the money for which we are asking…sometimes it is about the money that should already be there.
wow dow7500 really good comment; NOT. I stand with dragonmaster. Now run along to see your master and ask what great insight you should post next.
joeboy=tool
@Harleyguy:I would be more inclined to support them if their fight was reasonable. But When I hear they are demanding compassion leave of 6 days to grieve for the passing of a friends mother or some scenario like that.
**sounds pretty bad on the surface, but look at it in a realistic scenario: Your best friend’s mom (whom you’ve known since you were a kid yourself) passes away and your buddy falls apart. He lives the same town as his mom, while all the other relatives live in Ontario. You ask for a couple of days to help your pal deal with the death of this person who has been a part of your own life for 40+ years. It doesn’t sound like as much of a scam anymore?
Or, if you are liberal enough to consider this one: your same sex partner passes away, but because he isn’t officially your sibling or spouse, you receive no time off to deal with your loss?
**** The 15% wage increase has to come from somewhere, so here go our taxes again.
%15 over 3 years is only slightly more than the increase in inflation, so it is meant to prevent a net LOSS of wages and buying power over the term of the contract. As far as taxes, I’ve asked before why we aren’t questioning the government about the necessity of a pretty new roof on BC Place…or Smart meters…
***The whole myth about the TA’s is media hype . I do not even have kids in school anymore , so why should I pay more in taxes to pay for stupid stuff like that.
?You don’t have grand kids? If you do, how thankful are you that they don’t have a learning disability or an issue that makes it hard for the kids to learn? The TAs are an extra adult in the room that can lend a hand and keep the kids on task, but they do NOT have the training to plan, prepare lessons or to present them so that the majority of kids can learn them easily. These people DO free up the teacher so that he or she can get right in there with the most difficult cases, though…
***I wish I had a job like that , 3 month out of the year off,all holidays off . Weekends off. And they still make more money than I do and I get paid fair.
You do realize that teachers aren’t paid during the 2 month summer, right? They are laid off over the summer – but they can’t claim EI because the employer has a scheduled restart date. They live of the money they have put aside. The only paid holidays they get are 2 weeks at Christmas and a week in March. Most people who work 40 hour weeks get the weekend off, so why is that special? Teachers are actually paid on 9 hours per day (to include some time top prep and mark) so they actually log in 45 hours per week, not 40.
And the pro-D days like the one tomorrow…that is self-funded. Teachers direct the employer to set aside part of their pay for the 5 extra days each year that were added to the school year for the development. They had the money put aside for their own direction, but the new Bill will take away a teacher’s choice to decide how he or she uses HIS OWN money for self-improvement.
Its not a BAD job by any means, but its not just the stuff you remember as a child in school, and it sure isn’t the system you had when you were there either.
“You do realize that teachers aren’t paid during the 2 month summer, right? “
Ten months of work with three weeks paid vacation, so a 70k salary is actually 84k on an annualized basis.
“You do realize that teachers aren’t paid during the 2 month summer, right? They are laid off over the summer – but they can’t claim EI because the employer has a scheduled restart date.”
That is incorrect. The teachers are paid a salary that is based on 12 months. It may have changed but in my day (listen up whipper snapper!) there was a big pay-out at the end of June because that’s what they wanted.
They can’t collect EI because they are still employed. There is no lay off; it’s a vacation.
dow7500=FOOL!
Sorry faxman there is no PAYOUT at the end of the year…..how otterly stupid…..stop posting faxman your proving with every post that our education system is underfunded
“Sorry faxman there is no PAYOUT at the end of the year…..how otterly stupid…..stop posting faxman your proving with every post that our education system is underfunded”
This is rich coming from a semi-literate half wit.
Comments for this article are closed.