Much of the commentary about the tentative agreement suggests that teachers will do better negotiating with an NDP government. I'm not so sure about that.
While I think it would be hard to do worse than the current government, the NDP is, from what I can tell, pretty much refusing to say what their education policy would be.
Here is my attempt to get some answers. Neither Robin Austin nor Adrian Dix have responded to me:
Questions regarding education policy
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Tara Ehrcke
<tara@gvta.net>
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Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 2:57 PM
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To:
Robin.Austin.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Cc:
adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca
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Hello again Robin,
I sent you these question several weeks ago. Were you planning on responding to me?
Thank you,
Tara
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tara Ehrcke <tara@gvta.net>
Date: Sat, May 12, 2012 at 7:34 AM Subject: Questions regarding education policy To: Robin.Austin.MLA@leg.bc.caHi Robin,
I was forwarded recently your comments in response to teachers worried about Bill 22.
I have a couple of specific questions which your response seems to carefully avoid:
1. Is the NDP committed to restoring the $330
million per year to the education budget to restore class
size/composition levels to what they were in 2001 and to negotiate how
that funding would apply with the BCTF?
2. Will the NDP repeal any concessions that may
occur as a result of an imposed settlement further to the Bill 22 sham
mediation process?
3. Will the NDP agree to
fair and neutral mediation/arbitration in the event an NDP government
finds itself in an impasse in teacher bargaining?
4. Will the NDP refrain from passing back to work legislation which denies workers their constitutional rights?
I hope you can answer these in a straightforward manner so that I can share this information with teachers in Victoria.
Regards,
Tara
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I will pass these on to my MLA, Jenny Kwan, and if everyone did so, we'd get somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe NDP are just soft free market politicians. Rather like the old Red Tories, who wish to ameliorate the nasty aspects of capitalism, they will only confront the politicians who defend the corporate agenda and not the offenders themselves. We have construct the narrative and take the fight to them. Let's make the politicians work for our interests for a change.
ReplyDeleteA new book by Bill Fletcher jr called They're Bankrupting Us and 20 other myths about unions is worth reading.