I seem to recollect the good ol’ post office union employing rotating strikes. That worked out well for them, I guess.

Just listened to the news while sitting on the deck enjoying a rare sunny day. Keith Baldry has his ear to the ground in Victoria and reports that there is no appetite there to legislate an end even in the event of a full scale walkout.

Maybe that is exactly what this dispute needs. Seems the BCTF negotiating strategy is to table their opening list of demands and remain intransigent through the following sessions knowing that the most they have to lose is their wages for a day or two before being legislated back to work.

After completely missing a cheque or two maybe the rank and file will get the message to Iker and the bargaining committee that negotiations done correctly involve both give and take

Good post Lonesome. The more money that is missed and the longer this drags on, the less sense it makes to hang on for a percent or two.

Completely agree with all the above.

No sympathy for unions

Reading unsubstantiated opinions on this subject from right wingers amuses me :-) My evidence based opinion is; the government has been both stalling and making threats at the bargaining table, hoping to provoke the teachers into a strike, and it looks like Crispy Clark and her bully government are finally making some head-way!

“…court transcripts show B.C. Premier Christy Clark was involved in plans to provoke a full-blown strike in the public school system in a bid to gain public support for legislation that would end a labour dispute with the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF).”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/court-papers-prove-government-wanted-to-goad-teachers-into-strike-ndp-says/article16841781/

No doubt about it, provoking and goading the teachers into this strike is all part of that Lib-Con government strategy, too bad we are on to them, and the only public support they are getting is from their own Liberal Party members.

Eh. Who runs the province and country?

Big Oil and Gas.

Big green

A majority of the people in the province voted for the Liberal government,peeps.

As for job action it was the BCTF that served strike notice before lockout notice was given. Maybe a full scale strike or lockout is the only way to end this 30 year long version of Groundhog Day.

Too bad it wasn’t hot air your wallet would be giving Jimmy Patterson’s a run.

Question of the reason for your user name change is still unanswered peeps.

For those of you dumping all this on the BCTF, you seem to ignore the Liberal’s role in this.

From Michael Smyth’s column in The province:
“Clark was the education minister back when Gordon Campbell’s former Liberal government first stripped class-size ratios from the teachers’ contract.” Teachers gave up 3 year’s wage increase to get class ratios set in their contract.
After the Campbell gov’t ‘s actions,
“The B.C. Teachers Federation then successfully sued the government for doing it.” and after another appeal “the union has slam-dunked the government in court again”.

Good for the teachers. School shouldn’t just be a day care to push kids through until they are old enough to go work. It should be about meaningful education, and you can’t do that by stuffing more and more students into a class and not being willing to pay for qualified teachers.

If the teachers were brave they would nut up and have a full scale strike. Just like the city workers, they don’t want to lose any pay. It’s hard to pick a side when you have snivelling teachers up against shady political hacks. May the biggest loser win?

Peeps/BeingHuman: “No doubt about it, provoking and goading the teachers into this strike is all part of that Lib-Con government strategy, too bad we are on to them, and the only public support they are getting is from their own Liberal Party members.”

Yeah, well, I would take anything Adrian Dix says with a huge grain of salt. You apparently think his word is gospel.

Big dividends.

Educating our children , grandchildren and for me and great grandma our great grand children is the most important thing that we can all do before we die . We are very proud that we could have made enough money in our lives to have been able to pay taxes to that end . Thank you bctf . We are counting on you to look after our descendants . In this vicious and competitive world you have them in your hands . Don’t let us down and please don’t let our descendants down . Do the right thing .

Looking at teachers salaries, it doesn’t look to be a huge sum, and what would some raises cost us? What are teachers worth? I’ve gone a couple years without a raise. Put up against inflation, I guess I’m going backwards. How much funding do we give private schools……and why? You want private education, get off the public teat.

Why would a public servant send their kids to private school if they thought public funding was adequate?

JB, here’s an interesting read about Adrian Dix and his role in the 1999 BCTF contract:

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

Posted by: govsux on May 28 2014 11:45 PM
Why would a public servant send their kids to private school if they thought public funding was adequate?

———-

So they don’t have to deal with the BCTF. It’s nice to be in a school system where the mediocre and the mundane are not tolerated.

in a right wing utopia, that may be the case. Can’t speak for the school system, but I’ve been on both sides of the fence in industry. I can assure you nepotism and cronyism replace the union safeguards and incompetence flourishes in a non union setting. Currently in a management role at a large corporation and it is loaded with dead weight. a lack of qualified people and an unwillingness to hold people accountable result in low productivity. Only in a small operation, where the brass can see everyones work and judge it first hand, does the ability exist to relieve people, with just cause, of their duties.

It’s just not that easy to fire smart people. I’d be curious to see if the private school system does, in fact, deal with bad teachers and how do they evaluate their success.

JB states; “Yeah, well, I would take anything Adrian Dix says with a huge grain of salt. You apparently think his word is gospel.”

JB, when I said my opinion was evidence based, I was referring to the “court transcripts”, as in; “court transcripts show B.C. Premier Christy Clark was involved in plans to provoke a full-blown strike in the public school system…” You can’t get more evidence based than “court transcripts” that contain the words of testifying Liberal government politicians / officials, who are under oath to tell the TRUTH, or be charged with perjury if they lie. JB, this is one of those rare and exciting times where a Liebral politician / official cannot lie, and must tell the truth!

Wait a minute… I am beginning to feel like a teacher in a classroom full of students and you are one of the slower learners JB, I simply cannot spend any more time holding your hand and guiding you through the facts of this matter, there are other students that require my time and attention… I am sorry that linear thinking, and evidence based discussion / debate, are concepts too difficult for you to comprehend, but again, I am only one teacher in a very large class of students who also need my time and attention… I am afraid it’s sink or swim for you buddy!