VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Teachers in every community vote to take a stand:


Teachers throughout the province voted 90.5 % to take a stand in protest against Bill 12.
As a result, teachers will mount picket lines at schools across B.C. on Friday, and will remain off the job until a resolution has been reached and accepted by a subsequent member vote.

BCTF President Jinny Sims called today’s results “an overwhelming affirmation of teachers’ deep commitment to quality public education and democratic bargaining rights.”

“Teachers have spoken clearly,” Sims said. “We will not be bullied into accepting another legislated contract that doesn’t meet the needs of our students and doesn’t respect our rights as workers.”

“After four years of legislative attacks by this government, teachers cannot stand by and allow another school year to pass while conditions deteriorate in classrooms, and morale plummets in staff rooms,” Sims said. “If we don’t take a stand now for students and public education, who will? Certainly not the B.C. Liberals.”

“After a mere three days of very minimal job action, this government brought down the legislative hammer. The Liberals don’t care about students’ unmet needs and they will not allow teachers to exercise even the vestiges of rights remaining to us under their charade of essential services,” Sims said. “This government has no respect for teachers, for the teaching profession, or for the education of students.”

B.C. Teachers' Federation.........................................
Let's take the opportunity to hang out with OUR children & enjoy each others company !!!

My2 cents. The problem is with the system catering towards the lowest denominator. Class size is only an issue when you have to cater towards individual children that either need more help or have a disabillity. In order to be fair, these children should have smaller class sizes where they can get the attention that they need. Unfortunately the system does not really take into account the brighter students or the ones that demand less attention through good behaviour or the abillity to cope.

Once out of school, these kids are going to have a huge wake-up call when they discover the world is a competitive one. I don't seem to remember all these behavioural problems when I was at school. I believe that we used to stream the kids according to abillity and interests..

As for the liberals, they may not be the best, but they sure got us out of the financial disaster that we were heading towards under the NDP.

You might have guessed, i do not support this action at all.

Not being a teacher, some of us have to work for a living so that we can afford the extra $75 child care costs.

“After a mere three days of very minimal job action, this government brought down the legislative hammer. The Liberals don’t care about students’ unmet needs and they will not allow teachers to exercise even the vestiges of rights remaining to us under their charade of essential services,” Sims said. “This government has no respect for teachers, for the teaching profession, or for the education of students.”

B.C. Teachers' Federation.........................................

Funny they have not mentioned the demanded 30% wage increase in this rant.
Chris

Thank you for responding doodes. I respect everyones opinion & just wanted to get the word out early that school is NOT in Friday. Enjoy your weekend. (This ought to help enrollment @ private schools !)

Teachers did/do? have an opening barganing position of 15% over 3 years. 30% was never asked for as a wage increase... the government stated that the teachers' opening demands would cost 30%. Teachers asked for the funding levels to be replaced into the education system that was taken out during the previous Campbell government.

Turtle

Here is a letter from a PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) member in Vancouver (emailed to me by a friend)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Campbell, Ms. Bond, and Mr. De Jong,


We are parents, students, and community members who share a strong sense of respect and admiration for the hard work and dedication that our teachers in the public school system demonstrate on a daily basis. We are writing to you to express our disappointment in the actions of your government with respect to teachers. We appreciate that you believe you are putting children first in education. But, as parents who have seen the direct effects of your actions in our public schools we would respectfully disagree. Under your administration the situation in schools has gotten worse, not better. Class sizes have increased, support for learning disabilities have declined, and many schools are inadequately resourced. Parent Advisory Councils have been compelled to pay for funding gaps while teachers spend more and more of their personal income on needed school resources. Your government has placed the
burden of these problems unto the backs of our teachers. Not
surprisingly they have voted overwhelmingly to say No More. We are writing to express our support of the actions being taken by our public school teachers. We also ask that Bill 12 be withdrawn and that the government enter into direct talks to research a fair, free, and democratic collective agreement with the teachers of BC.
Yours, . . . .
--
--
Charles R. Menzies

Rant removed

This is a topic better not brought to this forum.

More Rant removed

JL if you wanted to get all of us to meet with our kids at the local beach, good idea

Keep smiling everyone

My take:

Tell me if I am wrong, but didn’t' the liberals remove the provision that an arbitrator would create an agreement if the collective bargaining didn't work out? That is why we have this conflict, as I understand it. Had that been left in place, no kids would face missing classes.

Also, it is a myth that the liberals are all for a balanced budget - they gave BC the two biggest deficits in the history of the Province (after inheriting two consecutive surplus budgets from the NDP). The only reason we have a surplus budget now is the *huge* increase in equalization payments (i.e., $941 million in 2004) and record breaking commodity prices from which the government benefits (largely due to royalty agreements and incentives launched by the NDP). . A windfall from Ottawa and international commodity markets have saved BC's finances from the failed theory that tax cuts pay for themselves. All the while, as Kus relates, services have fallen. Not to mention the rise in homelessness and users of food banks…

Don’t get me wrong – I am not a supporter of any particular party, just like to see truth in debates, and I have never seen a government so adept at hiding the truth as the current BC Liberal regime.

This is my last say before I bow out of this one.

I chose my work place, do not issue ultimatums to my boss. It's always my choice to work for an employer. I hate bearocracy, and hence choose not to work in abearocratic enviroment. My wife on the other hand has chosen to work for the goverment, however, she can choose to work in the private sector if she chooses.

I really would hate to have 2 bosses, a union and employer, therefore I don't. Again, this is my choice.

Anyway, enough said, it just seems that everytime someone goes on strike(they always have a reason as to why it will benefit me), it seems to cost me money.

On to happier topics, it's a long weekend and hopefully the wind gods will pull through for us. Enough said.

Yes, I need a dictionary. I should have logged in to be able to edit my spelling. Yikes.

geez Kus, I guess you are right, not the forum for a debate. But damn, with no wind it's easy to get riled up!

Hope everone has a good weekend, and let's hope for some wind, eh?

Kus, thanks for entertaining us as we wait for wind !

It is easy for this to consume us all because many of us are stakeholders as parents, educators, related public service unions, private contractors and tax payers.

Hoping that the big shots (on both sides) earn their wages by finding a fair settlement (quickly).

Mill Bay is as smooth as glass out there. It is time to start digging in the garden...

Turtle

go Jimmy Lewis...that's pretty interesting debate! Have fun wind surfing!

S. Lewis (Jimmy's sister!)

jimmy lewis wrote:Teachers in every community vote to take a stand:

Why do you you post this stuff on this site?? BigWaveDave.ca site! Windsurfing, kitesurfing, and now teachers? Whats next? There are other forums you know.


Teachers throughout the province voted 90.5 % to take a stand in protest against Bill 12.
As a result, teachers will mount picket lines at schools across B.C. on Friday, and will remain off the job until a resolution has been reached and accepted by a subsequent member vote.

BCTF President Jinny Sims called today’s results “an overwhelming affirmation of teachers’ deep commitment to quality public education and democratic bargaining rights.”

“Teachers have spoken clearly,” Sims said. “We will not be bullied into accepting another legislated contract that doesn’t meet the needs of our students and doesn’t respect our rights as workers.”

“After four years of legislative attacks by this government, teachers cannot stand by and allow another school year to pass while conditions deteriorate in classrooms, and morale plummets in staff rooms,” Sims said. “If we don’t take a stand now for students and public education, who will? Certainly not the B.C. Liberals.”

“After a mere three days of very minimal job action, this government brought down the legislative hammer. The Liberals don’t care about students’ unmet needs and they will not allow teachers to exercise even the vestiges of rights remaining to us under their charade of essential services,” Sims said. “This government has no respect for teachers, for the teaching profession, or for the education of students.”

B.C. Teachers' Federation.........................................
Let's take the opportunity to hang out with OUR children & enjoy each others company !!!