BCTF Memos Show $$$ More Important Than Students
Teachers across the province are upset at the mob like tactics of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and their union head Jinny "The Striker" Sims. So upset, that they have contacted this intrepid Poly with specific details of their impending strike vote set for next week - June 7th and 8th. In a working document faxed to this Poly, the BCTF has outlined four steps they are demanding their teachers follow when the BCTF does not get their 24% salary increase and instead "only" receives an 8% to 12% bump:
1) No Supervision beginning September 5 [first day of school]
2) A full day study session of September 5
3) Rotating strikes beginning September 11
4) Full withdrawal at a date determined at the special Representative Assembly in August
"How are we the bad guys here?", a very sweaty BCTF spokesperson asked. "All we are trying to do is give the kids a longer summer. Our plan for going on strike at the start of the school year without any real notice is like an extra surprise for the kids. Jinny just LOVES children - if they are properly cooked. HA HA HA...hey, you're not gonna print that, are you?"
The BCTF has maintained that "class size and composition" are the main issues in their contract dispute. However, a two page BCTF memo dated May 24th and distributed to teachers yesterday (May 31st) makes absolutely no mention of "class size and composition" and focuses exclusively on the demand of a 24% pay hike as is seen in the line "...salary increase is a high priority for BCTF members." (click for page 1 and click for page 2)
"Look, we have told you time and time again that the "class size and composition" we are talking about is the class size of Jinny's Mercedes and the composition of her bank account.", sweaty guy declared. "All the 24% increase would cost the province is $279 million per year. A small drop in the bucket - only half of what our NDP friends spent on the fast ferries."
Where would this $279 million come from?
"Jinny is suggesting from health care", our spokesperson continued. "I mean, our Dipper friends eliminated almost 1,600 full-time nursing positions and did not provide any school spots for nurses in the 1990's. So that pretty much shows our commitment to the big picture."
Teachers have reported to this Poly that they are receiving phone calls at home and on their cell phones from BCTF representatives reminding them of their "obligation to support the goals of the BCTF" and the need to "look the employer in the eye and vote to strike" if the 24% pay raise is not granted. When teachers tell the callers they are happy with the plan set out by the government, they are told to "have a one-on-one talking session with your union rep" and most shocking of all, "we have come too far down this path so in order to save face we have to strike if we do not get our 24% raise".
How does the BCTF respond?
"First off, you are not supposed to have access to our private memos and certainly our cogs in the machine, er, teacher members, should not be sharing phone conversation info with you", sweaty BCTF guy exclaimed. "Also, I just want to be sure you do not misunderstand my whole Jinny eating kids cannibal quote from earlier on. Jinny does not REALLY eat the children - she just consumes their right to uninterrupted education - HA HA HA...oh, boy...you're printing that too eh?"
Yep, students and parents deserve to know.
posted by BC Poly Blog at 8:23 AM
23 Comments:
Jinny is in a tough spot. The schools close on June 30th and you know what the Teachers really want for their summer holidays is the $4,000.00 to spend.
What chance does Jinny have of being re-elected President of the BCTF if there is no settlement by June 30th?
Jinny could always look at the bright side former BCTF Presidents have the option of becoming part of the BCTF Administrative Staff and earning a salary of between $80,000.00 and $96,000.00 per year.
Hell I didn't even earn $96,000.00 per year when I was Premier of this Province.
"Tough Spot" Darn right! But when does Jinny ever put the teachers first over what the union wants? The union leaders that is.
I agree with Frank. It's more about screwing the Government and politics than a win for the teachers.
what's wrong with the B.C. Liberals? Ontario's McGuinty Liberals gave the teacher unions everything they wanted and more, and yet the boards can't meet their budgets for special ed. and maintenance because they're having to use that enveloped cash to satisfy the very lucrative deal made by ed. minister Gerard Kennedy, who just happens to be a candidate for the fed. liberal leadership race. I hear he's rumoured to be moving west. You folks can have at him.
This is another issue that bugs me. The NDP are so far in bed with the BCTF that I can't tell where one ends and the other begins.
The BCTF is out to lunch on this one. I support the unions but come on.
There are some grumblings with NDP staffers here on the Leg. Ms. Sims needs to rethink here position. They are fighting a losing battle on this one.
let the silly buggers strike - they cab stay out until doomsday for all I care - it will provide the spark needed for the citizens of BC to nukethe BCTF and all the marxist wanna-be's that live rich off the teacher's union dues.
45,000+ teachers paying $1,500 each a year - the BCTF is a cash cow - any business would cut off an arm for that kind of annuity revenue stream.
My wife is a teacher and she hates the BCTF. She did not have a choice to join them and they do nothing positive for individual teachers. This government wants to work with the teachers, just not with the BCTF and who can blame them?
My aunt is a teacher and she is to scared to say anything. Doesn't even go vote.
tired, why is it always the teachers that are bad and not the government? everyone expects teachers to educate their children, coach teams, run clubs and activities, spend our weekends on various field trips and sports tournaments but when it comes to paying teachers, they are all lazy buggers who are only out for money? why is okay for BC teachers to make 18-20% less then collegues in Alberta and Ontario? If teachers take 8% in four years they will be paid less them teachers in Manitoba and Saskatewan.
I was a member of the BCTF for over 35 years. I never met a more anti-democratic bunch of intellectual thugs in my whole working life. They have been in bed with the NDP at least since 1972, dispite being treated poorly by every NDP government. The executive staged managed all the meetings from the local schools right up to the provincial level. Our hard earned dues were paid out not only to the executive in high salaries, but to every "liberation left" group from Cuba to Angola. Precious little ever came back to individual teachers. All this was managed by the empty headed approval of some. the weary acceptance of most, and the inexcusable brow beating and out right threatening of the few who dared to object. I hope that Sims does indeed provoke a strike. Perhaps then then public will arise in a justified wrath and help the teachers turf that whole self perpetuating bunch of hypocritical leeches out of their cosy executive offices.
If the public school employers and the BCTF reach a negotiated settlement, it will be an event worth celebrating. A negotiated settlement followed by 4 years or more of labour peace would work wonders for constructive, effective progress in the public school sector. I would hope that petulant pseudo-articles don't thwart what so many involved in public education would like to make happen.
The government should allow teachers to opt out of the BCTF or at least have a secret vote.
Now is the opportune time to do it.
I have total respect for the job teachers perform daily. However, as a huge advocate for children with special needs, I feel that these students need to be in the classroom every day, save for the odd snow day. But every day when the weather doesn't prevent school from opening, teachers should be in the classroom. Thus I will not, nor will I ever support a strike by the BCTF or any education-related union.
Clearly it is time to take the BCTF top Court with charges for obstruction of government business.
JInny Sims and you demented thugs need to understand that it is the parents who run education through the Ministry of Education, and not the bloody BCTF.
Look you guys, teachers are good people who really care about children and approach their profession with dignity.
Be careful not to trash teachers here.
Despite our disappointment with Jinny and her union we must all work to try and eliminate the barriers and end confrontation.
Reconciliation has to be the result we work for. Now if only Jinny could take a lead from the Nurses.
"why is okay for BC teachers to make 18-20% less then collegues in Alberta and Ontario? If teachers take 8% in four years they will be paid less them teachers in Manitoba and Saskatewan."
WHY should they make the same as those in Alberta or Ontario.This BS of looking at who makes the most and then asking for the same amount is rediculous. Why should a teacher make more than a steel worker for example? They physically work harder and their job is more dangerous. A teachers job is "cushy" compared to theirs. And why should teacher make more than pharmacists? They both have an equivalent education background.
And why should teachers get 2 months off in the summer to spend as they please?(I know, I know, some take continuing education but that is their choice) No one else gets that. Anf why should BC teachers get paid more than teachers in Sask and Manitoba? Are they better educated or do they work longer or harder or do they simply THINK they are better because they live in B.C?
No.
ITS BECAUSE B.C. TEACHERS ARE GREEDY. Plain and simple.
Horny Toad
Wow, the BCTF sure is going in the wrong direction on this one. I support teachers, but not their hard core union.
I like the way teachers compare themselves to teachers in Alberta when it comes to their pay.
Hey we all would like to have Alberta taxes and no GST but we dont. In an indirect way they are saying they like the environment Klein has created.
You cant have your cake and eat it too. If you dont mind cold and little summer move to Alberta thats why they pay more.
I know this has been said before, but it bears repeating. It is not the teachers themselves going for this, but the BCTF. Nearly 3/4 of my family is in the BC education system and not a single one of them likes or even supports what the BCTF is supposedly doing on the their behalf. Many of teachers just want to teach and do it for the love of teaching, so try and not paint them all with the same brush.
Well Daz, I think it is the teachers, they were the ones who chose to break the law last year. You can't have it both ways, we must have a shortage civic teachers in BC.
A seldom recognized impediment to a negotiated settlement are school boards and individual trustees. BCPSEA is supposedly an organization run by trustees through their school board representatives but so, so many of the trustees are looking out for the fortunes of the BCTF that there is a lot of sabotoging going on within the school board ranks. It would be more honest and transparent to simply have the BCTF bargain directly with the payer of the bills - the provincial government. There are so many layers to this situation I am not sure anyone really has a clear view of the landscape.
I am not a teacher but during the strike I did drop by three or four schools a day in solidarity with them. At no time did I hear anyone badmouth the union or the leadership. They made a number of comments supporting thier leaders. The union leaders are elected democratically by the rank and file and of course can remove them.
I was in two national unions and sure some members will complain. They don't bother to attend meetings and find any excuse to not picket. When the pay increase comes along they take it. If they hated the union that much they would simply not accept the raise.
"At no time did I hear anyone badmouth the union or the leadership. "
Of course you didn't, who would want to expose themselves to the thuggery that would follow?
What would be more interesting is the number of people who said nothing in support of the union...
The BCTF needs to be dismantled, or at the very least, the teachers should be restored the Right of association, or in this case, the Right to NOT associate with the BCTF if they want to be a teacher. The gov't should issue teaching licenses, not the union.
Frank says teachers should form another union. He suggests the governement should let them. The government doesn't let people join unions. Frank maybe doesn't understand the freedom of association idea. If teachers didn't like the folks they democratically elected, they most certainly could organize another union. That doesn't seem to be happening. Every union in existance has folks who complain about their leaders. They are the ones who don't show up at meetings but take any salary increase the others get. Some scab, other stay away, others don't vote but the vast majority do. And they al take the wages and the benefits. If thye hate unon go work at a private school which has no union
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