Kneecaps
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:54 am
As soon as the teachers began Phase 1 of their labour action they should have been fired.
Refusal to accept or correspond in writing with their superiors should have lead to their immediate dismissal.
I applaud the government for clawing back wages for the time lost due to the teachers actions. The government has repeatedly put parents and students first in their response to the teachers job actions. While making the hours of work portion of the BCTF's Phase 1 a lockout, government ensured that before, during and after school volunteer work by the teachers would be covered by WorkSafe BC. In response to the rotating strikes and the full scale strike, the Government has gone to the LRB to ask that final exam supervision and marking as well as report cards be deemed an essential service so that students and families can get on with their lives.
The BCTF continues to use children and families as pawns in their quest to increase their salaries while lightening their work load. More money for less work is their mantra.
The BCTF also continues on their protests against provincial exam standards that can be used to assess school district performance and possibly teacher performance. They are looking to guarantee their positions without any performance base.
Last night I heard a teacher expounding on her poor downtrodden state and her hope that the strike vote would spur the government to.....
"return to good old fashioned kneecappings" I interjected.
She thought I was joking.
This dispute is not about class size and composition. That is an issue that is before the courts and expected to be heard in the fall. No Matter what the BC Appeals Court finds, further appeals are likely. A court settlement of the issue is so far off it is not worth writing into a labour contract. Precisely why the Province has established a fund so that special needs issues can be addressed as they occur locally.
What this labour action is about is simply wages. Well compensated teachers who enjoy full year benefits and salary for less than 10 months work still wanting a bigger slice of our tax dollars.
Then there is Jim Iker, the head of the BCTF. In 1996 when the government dropped from 79 to 57 school districts and Jim's Burn's Lake district was combined with Nechako there was no similar contraction of BCTF executive even though the combined Nechacko Burns Lake district made positions redundant. Jim continued to collected a full BCTF executive salary heading his Burns Lake office pocketing his union member dues while representing less than half a district. Nice credible guy he his.
I have no problem with a long protracted labour dispute, the BCTF is already broke and can not afford to pay the folks on the picket lines while the government is saving millions of our tax dollars per day. BCTF support erodes everyday they keep children out of school and have families struggling to find child care alternatives.
Refusal to accept or correspond in writing with their superiors should have lead to their immediate dismissal.
I applaud the government for clawing back wages for the time lost due to the teachers actions. The government has repeatedly put parents and students first in their response to the teachers job actions. While making the hours of work portion of the BCTF's Phase 1 a lockout, government ensured that before, during and after school volunteer work by the teachers would be covered by WorkSafe BC. In response to the rotating strikes and the full scale strike, the Government has gone to the LRB to ask that final exam supervision and marking as well as report cards be deemed an essential service so that students and families can get on with their lives.
The BCTF continues to use children and families as pawns in their quest to increase their salaries while lightening their work load. More money for less work is their mantra.
The BCTF also continues on their protests against provincial exam standards that can be used to assess school district performance and possibly teacher performance. They are looking to guarantee their positions without any performance base.
Last night I heard a teacher expounding on her poor downtrodden state and her hope that the strike vote would spur the government to.....
"return to good old fashioned kneecappings" I interjected.
She thought I was joking.
This dispute is not about class size and composition. That is an issue that is before the courts and expected to be heard in the fall. No Matter what the BC Appeals Court finds, further appeals are likely. A court settlement of the issue is so far off it is not worth writing into a labour contract. Precisely why the Province has established a fund so that special needs issues can be addressed as they occur locally.
What this labour action is about is simply wages. Well compensated teachers who enjoy full year benefits and salary for less than 10 months work still wanting a bigger slice of our tax dollars.
Then there is Jim Iker, the head of the BCTF. In 1996 when the government dropped from 79 to 57 school districts and Jim's Burn's Lake district was combined with Nechako there was no similar contraction of BCTF executive even though the combined Nechacko Burns Lake district made positions redundant. Jim continued to collected a full BCTF executive salary heading his Burns Lake office pocketing his union member dues while representing less than half a district. Nice credible guy he his.
I have no problem with a long protracted labour dispute, the BCTF is already broke and can not afford to pay the folks on the picket lines while the government is saving millions of our tax dollars per day. BCTF support erodes everyday they keep children out of school and have families struggling to find child care alternatives.