BC teachers have voted 90% in favour of a "teach only" job action to start in the new school year this September.
A total of 90% percent of teachers voted yes in a province-wide strike vote conducted June 24, 27, and 28, 2011. In all, 28,128 teachers cast their ballots, of whom 25,282 voted yes. About 70% of teachers in schools and teachers teaching on call participated.
BCTF President Susan Lambert said the strong yes vote shows that teachers are united and are prepared to take action to achieve their goals of improved teaching and learning conditions, fair improvements to salary and benefits, and restoration of local bargaining rights.
“Facing a concerted campaign by the government and the employer to turn back the clock on teachers’ rights and reverse hard-won provisions on due process, we have no choice but to take a stand for ourselves, our students, and our profession,” Lambert said. “The employer is offering nothing and at the same time demanding we make many significant concessions. That’s not collective bargaining. It’s just bullying.”
The Liberals created the BC Ferries monster, which runs autonomous from the government (again Liberals) in charge, and operates in the red even with a taxpayers subsidy. You can thank our drink and drive ex-premier Lordo Gordo for setting this up, and whom has been recently rewarded by bigger and better things by having brown-nosed Harper in the past.
ReplyDeletePremier Christie Clark’s recent rave on the $315,000 a year pension for BC Ferries CEO David Hahn being monkey business is barking in the right direction but also said the pension is enshrined in a contract and therefore she is powerless to change it (hmmmmm where is this bark coming from or going???). I say this because Clark in Jan. 2002, then Minister of Education, announced that she “was proud” (and far from powerless then than now as premier) to strip teachers' hard-won contract which recognized the learning conditions required of special needs students (remember… she cares, and it’s all about the family), etc. Are there different contract handling rules for Hahn vs Teachers?
To put value of things into perspective, I doubt that our soldiers at war (or their surviving families) would get anything remotely close to a BC Ferries CEO-sized pension for being injured or killed while on duty. Both jobs are in Canadian public services, but I guess running (or running down) a corporation trumps serving your country at cost of life and limb.
Sorry, I just can’t get away from the HST. Clark is now getting creative by saying if the HST stays, teachers would have some negotiating room for the next contract. To understand your true motive, I would love to be a fly inside your head Ms. Premier. Like the saying goes “keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you’re up to”, and you do smile a lot.