PGDTA Weighs in on Teachers Deal
PGDTA president Richard Giroday – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – “This is the news that teachers have been waiting for for almost 16 years.”
The words of Richard Giroday, president of the Prince George and District Teachers Association, in response to the tentative deal struck this weekend between the Province and the BCTF.
The sides had been bargaining since November when the BCTF claimed victory in the Supreme Court of Canada regarding class size and composition.
The sides signed a Memorandum of Agreement and it won’t be implemented until the union ratifies it during a vote scheduled for this week. The details will be made available after the BCTF ratification process is complete.
“We finally have the restoration of our collective language which was stripped by then minister of education Christy Clark,” says Giroday. “It includes the full restoration of class size, class composition and staffing ratios.”
Education Minister Mike Bernier says it will mean thousands more teachers, more resources and more classroom supports.
“This is huge for our public education system,” says Giroday in response. “Those supports are so important to our students. It will give them the best possible opportunity for a successful education. Especially for younger children.”
Giroday says the vote will take place from March 8 to March 10.
Comments
I for one am disgusted the BCTF caved in. All they had to do is wait three more months and they could’ve negotiated with an NDP government who clearly would’ve given them even more than they asked. This giving in almost makes it sound like the BCTF has no faith in the NDP’s ability to win the next election and would rather make a deal with the Liberals – before the Liberals get a new mandate.
Or, the other possibility is the Liberals learned their lesson, and bargained in good faith, and it’s a fair deal for all. Which means that Christy Clark, the author of this mess, can actually learn from her mistakes and move on. Too bad so many others can never move on, but must perpetually live in the past.
I’d like to see a forward looking election. All I’m seeing right now is Christy Dumb, NDP good, but NDP won’t say what they plan on doing.
On a lighter note, the Ontario Liberals who are about as close as you can get to NDP without stealing the name, had 46 cases stayed because of taking too long to get to court. So look, even the lefties can screw up, just so far, they aren’t willing to admit it’s their fault.
You really think that there will be an NDP government in 3 months? Good Luck.
Um, I was trying to steal another prolific poster’s thunder. I think there’ll still be an NDP government in 3 months – in Alberta. In BC – not so much.
Thank you to our teachers, who stood up for better learning conditions in the classrooms for our children. Thank you to the teachers who fought against the illegal and unconstitutional actions of this BC Liberal government, and won! Our children’s future, and the public education they receive, are now better due to your efforts.
Come May 9th, we need a government that will champion our children’s education, not under fund and undermine it.
Hey peeps are you employed as a professional BCTF spokesperson? If not, you might as well be!
Governments don’t champion children’s education. It’s totally backwards that they don’t. Spend on education now or spend on jails and welfare later.
Or have you just been listening too much to the BCTF’s attack ads and you picked up on their talking points?
Like ski says, the toming of this is interesting and doesn’t speak well of the BCTF’s confidence in their favorite political party to pull out an election win.
Rusty writes:
“To their credit, the BC Liberals have done the best job of any political party in a long time of working with this tradionally hatd to work with group.”
and
“The BCTF had to appeal many times because they lost in previous court decisions.”
It was the Liberals who kept appealing until they found one judge who sided with them
Both the judge and the Liberals got their asses handed to them by the supreme court .
The biggest problem the BCTF has had is with the Liberals, who in 2014, were chastised by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin for creating ” a conspiracy at the highest level of your government to provoke a strike in our schools, throwing children and their families in to chaos for political gain”.
Furthermore, she also “levied a $2-million penalty against the government, saying it failed to negotiate in good faith.”
But I’m sure you will find a way to claim this was all the fault of the teachers and not a government that spent many thousands of dollars and fifteen years before Bernier proclaimed the increased spending “is great news for students, parents, and teachers. If ratified, the agreement means thousands more teachers, more resources and more classroom supports
Completely Agree karrman; I will reiterate your comment with a previous comment I made.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #4: Many on here are under the “false” assumption that teachers initiate strike action. The last teachers strike was not caused by the teachers, but was initiated by the Christy Clark Government. “The court Monday found a more sinister motive. The B.C. Liberal government thought that a teachers strike would give it a political advantage, Justice Griffin found, and this mindset set bargaining up for failure and made disruption in the public-school system inevitable.”
ht tp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/analysis-court-ruling-a-major-blow-to-clarks-strategy-with-teachers/article16536749/
It does not seem to matter how many judgement go against the BC Liberal Government, there will always be those minority few who think this government can do no wrong. Hmmm… speaking of which, I am very much looking forward to the results of the Elections BC investigation into the BC Liberal’s campaign financing.
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