Have a real strike – not a day off one week at a time. This would bring both parties to their senses.

Both the government and the teachers union need a knock to the head.
Stronger leadership needed on both sides or this will never be settled!

Pretty hard to reach a settlement when egos get in the way.

I think they do the rotating strike to avoid being legislated back to work.

I’ll go 15% over 6 years. I think that is reasonable.

Strange, how the teachers have managed the kids convinced on how bad the government is and to use them as pawns in the game. Shame on the teachers.

HE….that is opinion, not fact!

It’s all about the money! Not the class size or the lack of teachers. How stupid are people to buy into this! I ask the teacher why more money to do a job you already admit is beyond your capabilities? That’s $14,000 or or more plus a $1200.00 signing bonus over the next 4 yrs. give your heads a shake.
Could you imagine the response if people on welfare were looking at a 16% increase in there monthly pay.

Reduce the pension benefits, use the savings to hire more teachers. Reduce it by 4% = MINIMUM ( if all teachers made only 45700 this was on the BCTF teachers grid 2012 wage) $54,840,000.00 based on 30,000 FTE not even including part time and casual, that’s a lot of new teachers to reduce class sizes which they claim is their goal. Not sure how a 15.9% raise will reduce class sizes or improve teacher quality.

Teachers have an elite pension plan plus a fair amount whine about the deductions, so reduce the pension contributions to that of the Municipal Pension Plan which is still an amazing benefit then they have more Net pay and the cost to the government is substantial.

I have heard teachers whine about lunch time and recess supervision and how it is not their part of their pay, how their monthly staff meeting is not paid, after school work is not paid ( which actually is paid as it is part of the contract and part of their duties). Teachers are paid for 7hrs a day * 5 = 35hrs a week * 9 months = 12600hrs a year = 36.27 an hour for a first year teacher in SD57. With only a bachelor degree. They get a bump every year until they max out around 80K whether they are good at their jobs or not.

Most people work about 1800 hours a year. 36.27 an hour is pretty good rate.

Teachers that I am aware of requested students to remain in class and not walk out…..some students disregarded what the teacher requested and stated their parents and grandparents gave them permission and encouraged their actions. So to the posters that state teachers iencouraged this…..not so. Teacher’s working conditions are the students’ education. Pretty difficult to be moving through a lesson when you are constantly interrupted by a seriously behaviour disturbed student or a student that has possibly indulged in drugs and comes to class in a strange state of being and keeps interrupting. Try standing before this composition and try moving it in the right direction for the normal average students that want their education. Not easy…..especially when it occurs so frequently and with very frayed resources to deal with all this.

Teachers that I am aware of requested students to remain in class and not walk out…..some students disregarded what the teacher requested and stated their parents and grandparents gave them permission and encouraged their actions. So to the posters that state teachers iencouraged this…..not so. Teacher’s working conditions are the students’ education. Pretty difficult to be moving through a lesson when you are constantly interrupted by a seriously behaviour disturbed student or a student that has possibly indulged in drugs and comes to class in a strange state of being and keeps interrupting. Try standing before this composition and try moving it in the right direction for the normal average students that want their education. Not easy…..especially when it occurs so frequently and with very frayed resources to deal with all this.

People who support the teachers should be on the picket lines with signs saying, “Hey Provincial Government, take more money off of my paycheck and give it to the teachers”.

I see first hand how the teachers operate. Everyone who go’s to school graduates if they continue through with it.
Kids show up practically drooling out the side of there mouths asking about their mommies and you are suppose to hire them? Back in the day these people would have been rendered HANDICAP!
Education at it’s finest!
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in equality, unfortunately common sense just isn’t as common anymore.

Posted by: JohnnyBelt on May 29 2014 8:22 AM
People who support the teachers should be on the picket lines with signs saying, “Hey Provincial Government, take more money off of my paycheck and give it to the teachers”.

—————

Too funny. Most of the teacher’s supporters are of the belief that taxpayer’s have very deep pockets.

To SIABIZ: Teachers contribute 90% to their pension plan through payroll deductions and investment interest compounded from putting their payroll deductions into blue chip investments. Your post above is not correct. The pension plan is properly administered and regulated. You had a choice in life to invest your payroll deductions in an investment also.

To SIABIZ: Teachers contribute 90% to their pension plan through payroll deductions and investment interest compounded from putting their payroll deductions into blue chip investments. Your post above is not correct. The pension plan is properly administered and regulated. You had a choice in life to invest your payroll deductions in an investment also.

“taxpayerteacher” common sense would say, grow a set of balls and remove the student from your class room, get him or her counseling, get the parents involved. Would take no more than 10 mins of your time and would set an example for the rest of the class to follow. Not to mention, would be your problem anymore!

So what are the principals doing then, they get paid well over $100000 a year so why are they getting crappy teachers teaching in there schools and believe me there are some crappy principals out there that should not be paid that much and for only 10 months of the year for doing a lot less then teachers but no one is complaining about that.

taxpayerteacher: “Pretty difficult to be moving through a lesson when you are constantly interrupted by a seriously behaviour disturbed student or a student that has possibly indulged in drugs and comes to class in a strange state of being and keeps interrupting.”

On this point I will 100% agree. We should be bringing back classrooms designated for special needs kids, like back in ‘the old days’. That suggestion will likely make the parents of these kids mad, but so be it.

We can not afford to continue to pay these high wages for teachers, and other civil servants.

Its the Government employee’s, Government entity’s, and the Government itself that is sucking the life blood out of this Province and this country.

It seems that our lot in life is to work to pay civil servants big salaries, and not require them to work very hard to earn the money.

Time to stop.

Taxpayerteacher: – take a look at your T4 slip. That thing called a pension adjustment is what your employer is paying into the pension plan. So when you look at your gross pay, that amount isn’t included in it, because it is paid in on your behalf. So you make your gross, plus the pension adjustment. The employer is kicking in about $1.10 for every $1.00 you put in.

But, I am pleased that you are aware your pension plan is doing well because it invests in blue chip stocks. But out of the same mouth, I hear teachers say, tax the corporations more, to pay us more. Do they understand the disconnect here? That if the corporation’s pay more tax, they pay less dividends, which leaves your pension plan in a funding shortfall, requiring greater contributions from existing teachers?

JohnnyBelt, back in those days, those kids were special, and had a special school. Enlightened minds have decided it’s better to throw the proverbial rotten apple back into the bunch, with the belief the bunch will make the rotten apple better – and we can see how well that’s working out.

BTW – have any of you ever went to a movie theatre and a severely handicapped person is there and groans and screams through the movie. Did you even stay, or did you do as I did and left planning to come back another day. Well, my issue with teachers is just whose going to pay for it, I don’t dispute their issues – and if we can’t handle a two hour movie with someone groaning and screaming out, how do we expect them to do their job, with no one available to take that child out of the classroom until they settle down? I guess the question is, can we afford these high ideals anymore?

My experience with teachers has been very positive. Most are great people with a passion for what they do.
Unfortunately they have a combative union that seems to care less about that “passion” and more about sticking it to the government for past offences!

For all you teacher haters and think their jobs are such a breeze with so much time off its obvious you don’t know what you are talking about. I worked for the school district for 5 years and all I can say is that teachers are the most unappreciated, mistreated ( by parents, because perfect little Johnny or Joanne are not the problem for their behaviour or bad marks, it’s the teacher) and underpaid.

Go spend a few days in a classroom so you can all learn how ignorant hour anti-teacher comments are.

Boom times for Tim’s. Teachers aiding child poverty with their students with iPhones spending their parents money there until the strike is settled? Just a thought.

For all you teacher haters and think their jobs are such a breeze with so much time off its obvious you don’t know what you are talking about. I worked for the school district for 5 years and all I can say is that teachers are the most unappreciated, mistreated ( by parents, because perfect little Johnny or Joanne are not the problem for their behaviour or bad marks, it’s the teacher) and underpaid.

Go spend a few days in a classroom so you can all learn how ignorant hour anti-teacher comments are.

The public education system is broken. We seem to spend more time worrying about whether a kid has a peanut butter sandwich in his lunch rather than teaching the 3 R’s.

We award everyone for participating and push kids through the grades even when they should be held back. Many of those kids will be in for a rude awakening when they leave school.

What a mess.

Maybe after all this is over the folks who organize the “Raise A Reader” exercise can have two or three of them scheduled in one year to compensate for teacher classroom inaction. Or have a “Raise A Writer” or “Raise A Mathematician” cause. Problem solved.

My wife is a teacher so I will make that known ahead of time. She’s not over-paid or under-worked. She’s a teacher, social worker, colleague, mom, caregiver, confidante, collaborator and she gives a $hit about her students. She deals with huge class sizes, no time to prep, grief from administration and parents, general hatred from an uninformed public and she still drags herself out of bed every day to go and do that job.
She has a B.Ed from SFU with a major in the subjects that she teaches. She works almost every night marking, prepping, calling parents, answering emails, setting up collaboration with her colleagues, working with student teachers and trying to watch her own son play a game or 2 of soccer. She has a laptop so she can easily bring her work home with her. She has had good years and she has had bad years as a teacher. She rolls with the job action and stands beside her fellow teachers for what is right. DO teachers want more money? Hell yes. They are asking for more money because they deserve it. She didn’t take a break from her job to go to school for a month to upgrade. We uprooted our family for almost 2 years and moved to Burnaby in order for her to get the additional qualifications that she felt she needed to do the job right. She is like 95% of the teachers that I have come into contact in the 25+ years that she has been teaching. The are a committed bunch who want what’s right for your kids. If you have the ability to type and read and post and complain, go thank a teacher for spending the required time with you to make sure you have the ability to do just that. If you’re self taught, you have an idiot for a student.
Go out and get a clue about what teachers are up against in today’s politically correct day and age.

I think it is the parents who often object to having a special needs child put into a class designated as Special Needs. They want their child to be in an *ordinary* class so as not to be perhaps stigmatized. The government gave in to those demands as much as possible. Teachers are venting their anger at the government, but that is not the whole story. Unruly behaviour and disrespect should lead to serious consequences and not be rewarded with a tacit assurance that everybody graduates no matter how bad they carry on and disrupt the teaching. JB is right. The system is broken and it has been for a long time. Throwing more money at it wouldn’t fix it.

“Posted by: JohnnyBelt on May 29 2014 10:40 AM

The public education system is broken. We seem to spend more time worrying about whether a kid has a peanut butter sandwich in his lunch rather than teaching the 3 R’s.

We award everyone for participating and push kids through the grades even when they should be held back. Many of those kids will be in for a rude awakening when they leave school.

What a mess.”

And this is somehow the fault of the teachers specifically???

I have to point out that JB said that the system is broken – he did not fault the teachers who have a tough job! Again, it is the whole system which needs to have a complete overhaul, based on facts and reason.

BTW, this is not a unique situation. There are other aspects of our society which need a complete overhaul. Very few want to admit that and even fewer would have the determination to get started on it.

JB, you do realize that it is very critical for a student not to bring peanut butter or do you not care that a kid goes into an anifulactic(sp) shock and needs help right away this is just one of the many things teachers have to think about as well as trying to teach a kid with F.A.S and also kids with autism. To me that requires a lot of experience to be educated to do that and I hands down think the teachers deserve what they are asking and again I blame the principals for hiring crappy teachers if you so called had or observed one.

I think I need to pull out that old VHS tapes called “To Sir With Love” and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” to see if I can drum up some sympathy in my mind for todays teachers.

…THOSE old VHS tapes… Sure glad I didn’t waste all my time in English classes.

I support teachers. I would happily give more of my tax dollars to teachers, maybe a bit less to politicians. I support my children, my children’s education and by extension, the teachers that provide this education.

@buzzinga: ‘Anaphylactic’ is the word you’re struggling for, and yes, realize it’s important. But the other things that used to be important, like teaching the fundamentals, have been pushed off to the side. We have lost our way.

The BCTF protects mediocre and sub-par teachers and rewards everyone equally. This in my mind is wrong.

I had a few good teachers in school, but I had a lot of bad ones too… people that had no business in a classroom. Some of those people are still teaching today. This is the problem of the BCTF.

I’m a bit on the fence on this one. Both sides need an attitude adjustment.

That said, I do believe the Gov’t gave the first cheap kick to the private parts.

When you negotiate a contract with somebody then tear it up willy nilly, and then dare the party to sue you, it doesn’t bring a lot of trust to the table now.

That’s what Crusty did when she was Education Minister.

I think I have the solution – and everyone gets what they want.

Make education a right – only to grade 10. If you don’t have a c+ average at end of grade 10 – no more school for you, unless your parents want to pay for it. Instead, off to work you go. Now, we no longer need TFW’s because we’ll have a bunch of 16 year olds looking for jobs that don’t require much education.

Take the money saved by not having these kids in grade 11/12 – where they’re likely not going to gain much anyway, and put it back into the system to hire more teachers and teachers aids, so we do a better job with the grades 1 to 10. The grades 11 and 12 will be a dream to teach, because the only kids there, will be ones who want to learn.

And as an added benefit – this will give teachers some real power. If Johnny doesn’t feel like learning in grade 10, then teacher can fail him, and Johnny becomes the new stock boy at Walmart. Johnny might not want that, so he might be motivated to put an effort in at Grade 10, or else he has to go out into the real world. And keep the rule in place for grade 11 – no C+ average – out you go.

Radical – maybe, but it solves the funding crisis, it solves the TFW problem, and gives teachers some power.

Regarding special needs children, I would just like to point out that teachers have to deal with the situation they have been given. They did not decide that these children should be in regular classes. Someone else took that decision. As employees, teachers are just required to deal with it. The problem, at least as I have seen it develop over the years, is that when it was first introduced arrangements were made for assistants to be present to give the extra attention needed by the special students. However, over several years, the government have put school boards in the position of having to remove many of these special assistants to keep to their budget. The slack has had to be taken up by the teachers, naturally. The fact is that difficulties from disruptions in classes from special needs children is predominantly due to the cutting of support by the Ministry of Education, not because of anything the teachers have done. Blaming teachers for the consequences of government funding decisions is just wrong. Blame the government.

so , they are paid accordingly.. maybe if they had the balls to suspend the disruptive kids, class size would be down to 16. Every class has 5 disruptive kids the school won’t do anything with.

Get rid of them.

Some interesting comments on the article posted in the Reported Elsewhere section.
“B.C. teachers’ strike to continue next week.”

Also includes a link to this article.
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2005/10/13/Newschoolwar/

I’ll one up you ski50 on how to free up a boatload of cash that is already in the system so can be reallocated for things like wages and class size.

Year Round Schooling

For school districts like Surrey that are growing by leaps and bounds, so much so that portables are added the same year the new school opens. Meanwhile every other school in the district is empty a quarter of the year. Quick search shows about 120 schools in that district so if they are empty a 1/4 of the time that is the equivalent of around 30 schools sitting vacant….why are they building new schools when there are 30 vacant ones? Even if 10 of those could be used because of elementary/high school consideration, using the $36 million it cost to build Dutchess Park, that frees up $360 million in capital costs going forward.

For districts like PG where enrolment is stagnant that unused capacity can still be used by mothballing or closing some schools. Significant savings in heating, lighting, custodial staff etc. Could even generate cash if some are sold off. Use this model across the province and it is big big bucks

Some teachers might not like it especially if their kids are on a break when they are teaching as they might have to pay for child care costs GASP! like most working parents in BC.

We are quickly approaching a tipping point when something has to give and the BCTF might not be too happy when it happens. So be it.

so , they are paid accordingly.. maybe if they had the balls to suspend the disruptive kids, class size would be down to 16. Every class has 5 disruptive kids the school won’t do anything with.

Get rid of them.

One of the things I like about these comments is sometimes I find myself leaning a way I didn’t expect to. Kicking kids out – careful what you wish for, if they’re a problem in school, imagine what they’ll be like on the street. Year round schooling, close buildings – I like that one.

But I have some understanding of teacher’s plight. The game really has changed from when they entered the profession to now. We might have had 2 problem kids in the whole school, not every class in my day.

My own profession is heavily influenced by Canada Revenue policy. When I started, CRA was actually pretty good about cutting people a break when they made mistakes, auditors were well trained and had good judgement, and tax law was relatively clear.

Not so now. CRA is aggressively assessing penalties, auditors are either not well trained, or not given a proper amount of time to do the job, and tax law is murkier than ever, all of which makes my job harder – so what do I do – I charge more because it isn’t as easy as it use to be and there’s more risk to me.

And I have a teaching example too. I taught accounting at the college – money wasn’t that great, but I loved it because I had engaged students, who were a blast to teach, and I think I got as much as I gave from the experience. Then, CNC decided to fund their cash shortfall by using students from China. I no longer had any fun. There was a language barrier, I found myself having to police them from cheating – because bad grades to them meant getting sent home, teaching ceased to be fun when half the class didn’t understand what I was saying – so honestly, they couldn’t have paid me enough – I just quit doing it.

Hey BCTF, If it really IS about the kids, and I really WANT to believe it is. Take 0% over 4 years, get the Govt. to use the savings during the next 4 years to fund the new positions you deem are necessary. Done deal.

Think that will ever happen? NO, cause its about the money.

With the year round schooling model it is not just in the buildings where savings can be found. Because there is no longer a 2 1/2 month summer break it would be it would be simple to complete school in 11 years. The kids would still get holidays between semesters but no extended summer break and honestly most kids are bored by mid August anyway and ready to got back.

Completing high school in 11 years would mean 1/12th or 8.3% fewer teachers would be required. This be handled in one of two ways, staff reductions or smaller class size, I would venture to guess this would meet the 2002 staffing levels that the bctf is asking for without having to put one red cent, I mean nickel these days, of new money into the pot.

Anyone got Peter Fastbender’s cell phone number handy?

To phje: you work for money don’t you?

taxpayerteacher:

yes of course.

Are you saying teachers don’t get paid? I am simply saying taking 0% increases over a 4 year contract may help their situation.

The idea of year round schooling has been kicked around for 50 years to my knowledge, but nobody has ever done it. There are some questions that arise, though.

1. If the school year is extended in days, does that mean a shorter school day? Will teachers be compensated for the increased expenses (travel, clothing etc) associated with working more days in the year, albeit with a shorter day?

2. If, instead, the day stays the same length, do the teachers get a pay increase because of the extended work time? How will this be funded?

3. Increased use of schools will mean increased maintenance costs. How will this be funded?

There are probably others, but these will do to identify the problems that are likely to arise. Tp anyone who says just impose it on teachers – are you deliberately trying to set up a scenario which will result in confrontation in the future that makes the present action look like a cakewalk? Any changes like that will only succeed if teachers buy into it voluntarily. Anything else will cause extreme resentment. Remember, we have to live in the real world.

I say the teachers should just walk off the job enmasse and push this issue to a head. The rotating strike thing is a waste of time. Someone is going to move if the system shuts down for any great length of time.

Pylot: “That said, I do believe the Gov’t gave the first cheap kick to the private parts.

When you negotiate a contract with somebody then tear it up willy nilly, and then dare the party to sue you, it doesn’t bring a lot of trust to the table now.”

The sweetheart deal the NDP negotiated would’ve cost taxpayers approx. $1 Billion. We better hope the government’s appeal succeeds or we are all in for a rude awakening, not to mention what the cost will be of what teachers are demanding.

taxpayerteacher:

My theory is not unheard of. BCGEU just did this in their last contract. ZERO %

The cost of education in this province has the potential to skyrocket in the next while. Any idea where the money is going to come from? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

Just wondering out loud… if the BC Liberals lose there court appeal, will they, and everyone supporting them, be three time losers?

lose *their*

Posted by: phje on May 29 2014 2:46 PM

Hey BCTF, If it really IS about the kids, and I really WANT to believe it is. Take 0% over 4 years, get the Govt. to use the savings during the next 4 years to fund the new positions you deem are necessary. Done deal.

Think that will ever happen? NO, cause its about the money.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teachers are already in their 3rd year of zero’s. Add your proposed 4 more years to that and that would make 7 years of zero’s. Due to inflation, every year of zero is effectively a pay cut. This is not even mentioning the 1998 contract that teachers took 0,0,2 while other public unions got more. Teachers took less to include class size and composition language. Which was of course then ripped up by the Liberal government.

If you at least think teachers are paid fairly now. Then why would you suggest anything less than cost of living increases?

Ammonra:”Will teachers be compensated for the increased expenses (travel, clothing etc)…”

Are they receiving a travel and clothing allowance now? This thread is getting more interesting by the minute! I worked all my life in industry and I never received a clothing and travel allowance!

Go figure! Poor taxpayers!

PGGuy; I would never dispute that teachers do not have a difficult job at times. This is not the first time you have posted that if a person is functionally literate, teachers deserve credit. To suggest that someone who is self taught is an idiot?? I would suggest the opposite, if a person learns to read, write & converse in a clear, intelligible manner without the aid of a teacher, said person is a fricken’ genius.
While I applaud the sacrifice you & your wife made for a career choice, no one put a gun to your head to make you do it. Most careers require some form of personal sacrifice to get gain, teachers are not the only workers who have had to make difficult choices to advance their station in life.

PrinceGeorge, it was a question, not a suggestion. Reread it. Perhaps you should have paid more attention to your teachers, since you don’t appear to know the difference. I notice you had no comment on the other query in that point about a shorter work day, nor on the other queries about increased work hours, school maintainance and how they would be funded. Suggestions are fine, but they must be thought through for all the ramifications. I identified just a few, there are probably lots more. Simplistic solutions (have year round schooling) often cause more problems than they solve, and in this case is likely to increase costs. Since the current costs are not being met, how can the province afford the increase. That was my (unspoken) point.

Just thinking to myself as talking to yourself is one of the first signs of insanity….the provincial ndp party has lost four straight elections….guess that make them and any one who supports the FOUR times losers. eh peeps! L

Year round school? In the summer who is gonna help with the harvest of, er, ummm, ahhh, never mind.

HB/Peeps: “Just thinking to myself as talking to yourself is one of the first signs of insanity….eh peeps!”

I think you just proved your own point!

The kids deserve to have two months off during the summer, as we did, and as our parents did. Don’t use the kids to solve an asinine adult problem.

The Liberals and the BCTF do not get along because they are politically opposed. Many members of the BCTF are also members of the NDP, and many of their demands are politically motivated. There is no love lost between the two.

Paying teachers more money will not give them more job satisfaction, nor will if increase their production.

Perhaps they should go on strike for a couple of months and we can get this issue settled once and for all.

phje;
“Hey BCTF, If it really IS about the kids, and I really WANT to believe it is. Take 0% over 4 years, get the Govt.”

If you had any idea of what you’re talkig about you would know teachers took 0-0-0 in 1998 to get class size language. Why don’t you read what has gone one with the teachers the gov’t and court rulings before you post?

Gee johnny belt, the teachers I talked to didn’t think it was a sweetheart deal to take 0-0-0 on that contract, and even less so after Campbell broke the law .

phje;
“Hey BCTF, If it really IS about the kids, and I really WANT to believe it is. Take 0% over 4 years, get the Govt.”

If you had any idea of what you’re talkig about you would know teachers took 0-0-0 in 1998 to get class size language. Why don’t you read what has gone one with the teachers the gov’t and court rulings before you post?

Ammonra:”PrinceGeorge, it was a question, not a suggestion. Reread it. Perhaps you should have paid more attention to your teachers, since you don’t appear to know the difference.”

I know it was a question and I dared to ask a question myself! So instead of questioning my level of attention to my teachers (I had excellent teachers, they were professionals, had no union and got paid according to a mutually agreed upon government salary scale and respect from their student) you refused to address my question, which was: “Are they receiving a travel and clothing allowance now?”

Here is an opportunity to educate me!

Read PGguy1234 post at 10 52 am. Don’t get it ? read it again, still don’t get it ? you are beyond hope on the subject. I also like the other post , pay the teachers more and the politicians less, that should be how this society works. The children are the future, the politicians we have NOW are ruining it.

I don’t think they get a clothing allowance. If they do they’re spending it on jeans and sneakers. Very professional right?

karmann, you are incorrect in your statement to phje: “If you had any idea of what you’re talking about you would know teachers took 0-0-0 in 1998 to get class size language.”

Sorry, but the 1999 contract was being negotiated during a time of restraint when Glen Clark‘s NDP government was insisting on a three-year deal for all public-sector workers with pay increases of 0,0 and 2. The BCTF bargaining team had been seeking 3, 3 and 3.

The BCTF ended up accepting the same 0,0 and 2, however, the pot was secretly sweetened a lot more for the BCTF. There was one more bit of a fallout a year late when the new NDP premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, began uncovering the true costs of all those contracts negotiated by the departed Glen (who resigned in 1999) with the assistance of the departed Dix (ditto).

Far beyond the 0-0-2 basics were myriad additional costs. Pension improvements. Hiring targets. Boosts in pay and benefits for designated categories.

The full cost of all those Glen Clark-government authored deals was pegged at $1.3 billion, the equivalent of an 11 % boost in the tab for public sector compensation.

The latter disclosure during a budget briefing in the spring of 2000 produced a memorable headline: NDP math: 0+0+2=11.

So to recap the results of the one round of public sector bargaining where Adrian Dix takes partial credit for the outcome:

The premier’s office directly negotiated a one-sided deal with a union that had to be imposed on the province’s elected school trustees. It also generated a revolt against one of the few BCTF leaders to ever successfully negotiate a contract. And the terms, as sold to the public, were subsequently discredited by the New Democrats themselves.

All of this information can be found in the following articles:

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2010/03/10/clarification-a-quick-review-of-bctf-history/

http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=8939e534-0a32-43c3-a59b-b63a8dc27e76&sponsor=