Are teachers in your community debating how we should resist Bill 22? Please copy and share this leaflet with other teachers as we debate strategy:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxob2xkdGhlbGluZWd2dGF8Z3g6NmUwOWJkYzFkZjlmY2M3NA
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxob2xkdGhlbGluZWd2dGF8Z3g6NmUwOWJkYzFkZjlmY2M3NA
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI will advise the BCTF not to recommend names for a mediator and not to participate in a government imposed mediation.
ReplyDeleteI don't suggest that teachers strike right away or next week. It may take a couple of weeks. However, the teachers should be united together in their actions. Then again, if there is strong agreement, the teachers could strike next week.
If teachers accept Bill 22's cooling off period, the government will just impose a contract after that time. Fight ASAP or forget about fighting.
Required reading for every teacher.
ReplyDeleteAs a colleague of mine tweeted: In life, sometimes your the bug and sometimes your the windshield. It sucks to be the bug.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add that this is our chance to make a real difference to education in BC. I am sick of being treated as though I do not know what is best for my students....
It's time to BE THE WINDSHIELD !!!
Fantastic blog and cogent pamphlet, to be sure, but I'm unsure about an illegal walkout...
ReplyDeletehttp://thielmann.blogspot.ca/2012/03/bill-22-q.html
If we walked out, and the gov't eventually caved in and started negotiating again without the constraints of Bill 22, we would still be where we were a year ago -- two sides impossibly apart. Yes, BCSPEA's demands are unreasonable, but some of ours our/were, too. The gulf is too wide for mediation, let alone arbitration, without some movement on both sides. Regardless of whether we walk out or not, we need to prioritize the issues we are willing to debate and seek compromise, at least to give the gov't some sense of where they can step back into the process. I could be wrong, but this gov't doesn't seem like the type to cave in. Clark, Falcon, Abbott, Bond, etc. are pretty firm about their bargaining mandate and the new ed plan, so a caucus revolt doesn't seem likely, either. Even the newest polls putting NDP at 45%, Libs at 31% and Cons at 14% aren't likely to convince the gov't to change -- they aren't really losing support to the NDP, they are losing it to the even more right-wing Cons. If anything, they'll act tougher as a result (Iron Mom...).
Part of me would like to see what civil disobedience would accomplish, but the bigger part, for now, would like to see what passive resistance (to the heinous parts of Bill 22) and compromise (towards a realistic contract) would accomplish first.
We should not be afraid - and we must win
ReplyDelete