A tentative deal has been reached between the gov't and the teachers. BCTF will vote on it on thurs. No details have been released yet. Considering they were so far apart on wages, benifits, and class size and composition. Although both sides will try to make it appear the otherside folded, it's fair to assume that both sides gave up something in order to get something else.
Tentative deal reached in teacher's strike
- Thread starter tadolder
- Start date
Hopefully both sides are happy and a long term agreement is in place so we don't go through anymore of this acrimony.
Well, the condition of that was that the teachers give up the whole class composition battle.
Ha...currently, it's like 5 'free' sessions a year with coverage of about $100 per session. Not great considering they spend all their days on their feet. I get better coverage through my work.
Teachers I know seem pretty nice to me. Their biggest fault is letting their union speak for them.
If you're referring to the BC Liberal party, then you got it.
It's not the teachers that illegally ripped up the teachers' contract and put the province in this mess.
It's not the teachers who wasted $30 million on partisan ads before the election, who wasted $12 million on Bollywood awards, who went $125 million over budget on the convention centre, who spent $700 million paying off mystery deals on California energy, who spent $7 million on buying of Basi/Virk, who spent how many millions on lawyers fighting the ripping up of teacher contracts, it's not teachers who bankrupted BC Hydro, it's not teachers who increased the debt faster and higher in the last three years than any time in our history.
But, you know - they're protecting the taxpayer.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-teachers/article20613541/
"The main victory for the union is that the government is creating a new education fund that will be used exclusively for members of the BCTF to address issues of class size and composition – the number of special-needs students in each classroom. The government had offered to put more money into special needs supports, but had initially planned to share that investment with other educators such as educational assistants who are not part of the BCTF."
"The main victory for the union is that the government is creating a new education fund that will be used exclusively for members of the BCTF to address issues of class size and composition – the number of special-needs students in each classroom. The government had offered to put more money into special needs supports, but had initially planned to share that investment with other educators such as educational assistants who are not part of the BCTF."
I will just state right away I am right wing and a fiscal conservative.
Just as those on the left will NEVER understand nor agree to my views I will NEVER understand nor agree to their views also.
This is the way our Province has been for years and it will never change.
There is no way for the teachers, as they are currently represented, to ever reach an agreement without some sort of strike. Historically this has been demonstrated with both the NDP (the NDP were the FIRST government to legislate the teachers back to work!) and Socred and Liberal governments.
Think about this the NDP had to legislate the teachers back to work.
So while most labour issues are usually about right and left wing fiscal ideologies. I find it interesting that the teacher's union cannot even reach agreement with the NDP.
While an agreement has been reached tentatively, there is no peace and in six years we will be in the same mess.
IMHO in my opinion the only long term solution is to do what Reagan did to the air traffic controllers. While the situations are different the concept is to force the ultimate decertification of the union.
Just as those on the left will NEVER understand nor agree to my views I will NEVER understand nor agree to their views also.
This is the way our Province has been for years and it will never change.
There is no way for the teachers, as they are currently represented, to ever reach an agreement without some sort of strike. Historically this has been demonstrated with both the NDP (the NDP were the FIRST government to legislate the teachers back to work!) and Socred and Liberal governments.
Think about this the NDP had to legislate the teachers back to work.
So while most labour issues are usually about right and left wing fiscal ideologies. I find it interesting that the teacher's union cannot even reach agreement with the NDP.
While an agreement has been reached tentatively, there is no peace and in six years we will be in the same mess.
IMHO in my opinion the only long term solution is to do what Reagan did to the air traffic controllers. While the situations are different the concept is to force the ultimate decertification of the union.
Speculation is it is a 5 or 6 yr deal. The teachers are not going to be in any hurry to go out on strike anytime soon.
Except, the government has a clause in there that they can rip up the agreement and renegotiate after the Court of Appeal ruling.
So, it is not impossible that there will be more unrest in a shorter time period than any of us is looking for.
Currently it is a 6 yr deal.
They have a $108m for 40,000 teachers in a grievance fund that might be paid out as one-time payments. Avg. = $2,700 per teacher.
It has happened before and the teachers promptly certified a new union.
The government was trying to bust the BCTF with this dispute, and then they received heavy weight financial support from other unions.
With this kind of agreement no-one is happy, but that is part of the process of negotiation.
Teachers gave up a lot of their demands, but managed to get E80 off the table, so the court appeal is going ahead and the battle isn't over yet.
This is just another step in the long saga. The government conceded less than the teachers did. Overall, it seems a reasonably fair settlement, however, there is still the ability to rip the agreement up after the Court of Appeal decision. Not good at all, though I question whether the government would want to do that before an election.
So Iker says vote YES when they took a massive beat down! So basically teachers lost a pile of salary etc and they won't make it up ever. The deal gives them the same salary increase that the government had on the table from day 1, they gain 15 million a year for class size and comp. Which is nothing and they get an extra 10 min of prep time per week. The only item they really got was E80 off the table. Seems like the kids and the teachers lost out due to horrible leadership of the BCTF. Oh yeah and now the union is broke. But apparently the number of upcoming new teaching jobs means more union dues....somehow I find that unrealistic for a union that ran out of strike pay withing days of the strike starting.
I've heard it directly from teachers themselves that the internal voting within the union makes it extremely difficult to get rid of the leaders.
I've heard it directly from teachers themselves that the internal voting within the union makes it extremely difficult to get rid of the leaders.
Actually depending on the court decision either party can then enter into negotiations about class size and composition. The whole agreement is not open to re-negotiation.
True. Though this was at the core of what the BCTF were looking for and why they made such a large sacrifice not to void the two SC rulings.
Oh ya. He is collecting his 200,000 salary just fine. Apparently he still collects his teacher salary, even though he hasnt been in a classroom in yrs. He found some loophole which allowed it.
Have you ever walked in a teachers shoes and tried teaching a class of kids for a week or two?
They deserve every cent they get paid... that is, unless you believe that public schooling is only a babysitting service and children should only be learning the necessary skills to begin earning a living as young as possible.
The BCTF on the otherhand... yep, certainly not worth the money they are getting paid, but nor are most of our politicians.
