Teachers on strike AGAIN :-(

The teachers here in British Columbia are paid twice as much as in the U.S., both in starting salaries and average salaries. They have been on "administrative strike" since September, which means they are not issuing report cards, supervising students outside, communicating with parents, holding parent-teacher meetings, taking field trips, or talking with administrators. 

Starting Monday, they are going on a 3-day full walk-out strike. After that, they plan on striking one day a week. They are doing this "for the students." They want a 15% pay increase even though the government, which is in bad shape financially, had already put a freeze on all public-sector raises. Teachers here have very sweet pensions, in addition to large salaries for working 9 months out of the year (2 months off in summer, plus two 2-week breaks at Christmas and spring break), plus generous sick leave and vacation time. 

Also, after you have taught here for 5 years, you are locked in and cannot be fired. Our experience has been that many teachers start coasting at this time, still drawing a fat paycheck. Our daughter's Grade 4 teacher taught for the first 6 weeks then took "mental health" time for the rest of the year! She did the exact same thing to her class the very next year, too, but she only lasted for 3 weeks the second time!
 

Parents are scrambling to find care for their kids for next week... and beyond. Last time the teachers here held a strike,  it lasted for over two weeks, and many parents had to use their sick leave and vacation time, those that could dragged their kids to work with them all day.

Enrollment for high schools is going on right now; you have to fill out an application package if you need to go out of your catchment. We are trying to get our daughter's grades so we can complete the enrollment application so she can go to high school! We have no idea what happens if we don't get her grades and she can't get into a high school for September!

What a disaster!

Wow!  Being a teacher has got to be a difficult job.  But that is just awful.  I can't see how striking like that is helping the students.  If anything it's teaching them that if you don't like things or get what you want you can just have a temper tantrum (because that is what it sounds like to me!) till someone does what you want.  Are the teachers Union lead like in the states? 

I have never understood tenure in elementary and high schools. There have been attempts here in the states to get rid of it but they have not been successful. The reason for it at university level is that many professors do research and are published. Tenure is to protect those who take an unpopular stand or participate in unpopular research. That makes sense, you need the unpopular side of things to have a free flow of thought and ideas.

I think there are times when a strike is necessary but it depends on who and what for. They can affect so many people. Much like our bus drivers going on strike for the last month. 90,000 people who rely on it have to carpool, cab or walk.

Doing it for more money when make good money already is ridiculous!

There's no contract clause that they can be fired for strike. They admin should then hire temps to do the teachers jobs, and not pay the teachers. I'm sorry, but nowadays when jobs are so hard to come by, I'm sure student teachers would be up for the task. I moved out here because its a union free SD. If a teacher stinks-we get rid of them. It's a little incentive to do do the right thing, and keep working.

If our teachers decided they needed more money (They already make a ridiculous amount of money) and tried to strike, they'd be on the unemployment line so fast their heads would spin. I can also guarantee no other SD would hire them since they tried to screw us. As it is, my SD is cutting programs so much, us parents have gotten together and we're calling for a full state audit of our budget. We literally pay the highest taxes of any SD around here, and we're losing stuff-while other sd's are ADDING. It's infuriating. 

I feel bad for the kids in your SD, by no fault of their own, just selfishness on the teachers part, they may wind up being messed up for the next grade. That's not what I'd want my kids to learn. 

The teachers here have to join the union, and the dues are taken out of their paycheques. The teachers' union is a bully. The head of the union kept harping about not wanting the kids to miss a single day of school, yeah right. (Teachers' starting salaries here are $50-$60K; after 5 years when they reach tenure it's about $70-$75K - for nine months of work - not counting vacation and sick leave.)

Still no reply from out daughter's teacher for those much-needed grades! Hopefully he will have something for us Thursday or Friday next week because after that it's two weeks of Spring Break, and if/when school opens again will be way past the deadline for us.

I also think they should fire them all and rehire new teachers, but BC is pretty wimpy about doing stuff like that.

Hey thanks guys for the sympathy, what a nightmare. So far our daughter does NOT have a high school to attend next year!

Wow!  I don't know what that equals in US dollars anymore; but wow! 

It's too bad parents cant "strike" on the teachers.  I'm not sure if thats the word for it; but parents should be able to say enough is enough!  That just really upsets me that it's messing with something as basic as her high school education and there isn't a thing you can do about it.  At least from the sound of it. 

As a teacher, I am always amazed at all the hostility that is directed at us. I don't understand it.

What the OP described as the administrative strike, I have never heard of before. Very odd, to me.

For the amount of education we have, and have to continually have, at our own expense, usually having to take classes during that summer "vacation" - well we are not well paid, at all. And our pensions are not great, and increasingly in danger of being reduced, or lost, though we have paid plenty into them, all along, and we don't get Social Security.

But I am in the US, not Canada.

The raises we get are very small, and actually we haven't gotten one at all in a couple of years.

And, yes, it is a very difficult job, and getting harder every year. I can't imagine that young people will want to get into this line of work in the future. I sure wouldn't advise any young person to do so under the current climate and conditions.

There are a great deal of misconceptions among the public about how it really is. I worked in the business world before I became a teacher, at age 40. Teaching is much harder.

Robin

bastetservant said:

As a teacher, I am always amazed at all the hostility that is directed at us. I don't understand it.
What the OP described as the administrative strike, I have never heard of before. Very odd, to me.
For the amount of education we have, and have to continually have, at our own expense, usually having to take classes during that summer "vacation" - well we are not well paid, at all. And our pensions are not great, and increasingly in danger of being reduced, or lost, though we have paid plenty into them, all along, and we don't get Social Security.
But I am in the US, not Canada.
The raises we get are very small, and actually we haven't gotten one at all in a couple of years.
And, yes, it is a very difficult job, and getting harder every year. I can't imagine that young people will want to get into this line of work in the future. I sure wouldn't advise any young person to do so under the current climate and conditions.
There are a great deal of misconceptions among the public about how it really is. I worked in the business world before I became a teacher, at age 40. Teaching is much harder.
Robin

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That may be just a Chicago thing for you-our teachers get a good pension. I know because out here in Suffolk, in order to get a budget passed, the residents get a list of expenses, and that includes what we pay in pensions. Medical, dental, prescription plans that would normally be covered by a union, are covered by us. At retirement, our teachers can also get SS benefits, medicaid, medicare or whatever else the government offers, in addition to pension pay. We lose teachers, by layoffs if we cannot afford them, however, the remaining teachers do get raises, and over the last 5 years, we have only lost coaches and art teachers. (Which irritates the heck out of me, but I can't pick and choose who we lay off.)

I'm not hostile towards teachers. I do realize how difficult your job is-considering many parents do not support the teachers efforts, and do not do ANYTHING with their children and leave the raising to the school. I also sympathize with the lack of basic school supplies. The list that I had to buy this year was unbelievable-things like construction paper and tissues! 

bastetservant said:

As a teacher, I am always amazed at all the hostility that is directed at us. I don't understand it.
What the OP described as the administrative strike, I have never heard of before. Very odd, to me.
For the amount of education we have, and have to continually have, at our own expense, usually having to take classes during that summer "vacation" - well we are not well paid, at all. And our pensions are not great, and increasingly in danger of being reduced, or lost, though we have paid plenty into them, all along, and we don't get Social Security.
But I am in the US, not Canada.
The raises we get are very small, and actually we haven't gotten one at all in a couple of years.
And, yes, it is a very difficult job, and getting harder every year. I can't imagine that young people will want to get into this line of work in the future. I sure wouldn't advise any young person to do so under the current climate and conditions.
There are a great deal of misconceptions among the public about how it really is. I worked in the business world before I became a teacher, at age 40. Teaching is much harder.
Robin

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Good post, Robin. I agree with you. Teaching has to be one of the most difficult jobs around and I certainly would not have the patience to try to teach, let alone deal with the kids (and often their parents, too). I feel that most teachers truly earn their money. I agree about the pensions, too, as well as the raises. Yes, I get upset when my property taxes increase, but I understand the need. And especially right now since PA's Governor, with his infinite lack of wisdom, has decided to slash educational funding. On one hand, it's forcing school boards to become more fiscally efficient. On the other, well, the money has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is the taxpayer, who is already having trouble trying to make ends meet.

And when teachers have had no raises (or miniscule raises) for years, what are they supposed to do? Teach simply because they love teaching? Is that realistic? Striking isn't the best answer either and, to be honest, I don't know what the answer really is. I'm talking about the US, not Canada.

Yes, I'm pro-union. Always have been and always will be. I've always believed in the power and strength of an educated union. My DH is a 30-year member of the Carpenters union and I was a 20-year member of the Paperworkers before I left my job at International Paper.

MoochNNoodles said:

Wow!  I don't know what that equals in US dollars anymore; but wow! 

It's too bad parents cant "strike" on the teachers.  I'm not sure if thats the word for it; but parents should be able to say enough is enough!  That just really upsets me that it's messing with something as basic as her high school education and there isn't a thing you can do about it.  At least from the sound of it. 

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The US and Canadian dollars are at par right now.

Here, as well, teachers rule over everything related to schooling - they did the work to rule thing again last year and administration went happily along with them. I don't know what the final dollar settlement was but the figures prior were about the same as the OP stated. Most here retire with a salary of around 100K for the last few years they work and then receive a huge pension.

If one looks at the historical development of unions, they came about because of horrendous working conditions. Unions have been instrumental in improving conditions for all workers, not just union workers.

In Illinois, the state government has robbed the public employee pension funds for years. Now they are severely underfunded. Tbe state is bankrupt. How the pensions will be paid to those who worked many years, paid into their pensions, and can't get SS, is a mystery to everyone. It is scary.

Yes, all teachers I know spend a lot of their own money on supplies.

Robin

When I was in elementary school the teachers went on strike for about a week. I don't remember much of it because I was pretty young, the only thing I do remember is being angry with my mom because she would still make me study or do school work for a few hours a day while my friends parents just treated it like a vacation for their kids, lol. 

When I was in college the teachers also went on strike, for about a week. That really made me mad because I was paying so much to attend school and couldn't for a week. I definitely think my education suffered then and when they came back I had a very negative attitude towards them and the program, to the point where I almost dropped out. We still had to submit some of our projects during the strike and had to cross the picket lines, it was not a pleasant time. 

I don't agree with most Unions. Almost everyone that I know that's part of one takes advantage of it. There was a huge strike here with one of the companies, they were striking and refused to take a pay cut. The people that were getting the biggest pay cut (almost $10/hr) were the ones that hadn't gone through any special training, they had only completed high school and some of them hadn't even done that. They were making upwards of $30/hr, even with the pay cut they would have been making almost double the minimum wage here. The ones that had completed college/university for specialized programs (welding, etc) would have only been taking a pay cut of ~$5/hr and would have still been making upwards of $40/hr. They went on strike, for a long time, and the company just decided to close the plant. The thing is, almost everyone knew that that was going to happen if the strike went on long enough. The production was low to begin with they were warned that if they didn't increase it the plant's work production could be cut or closed, yet they chose to strike anyways. Now many of them are without a job, in a city where jobs are pretty scarce to begin with, and will most likely be working for minimum wage. 

Sorry to get off topic a bit there... 

Teachers were back in the classroom today after a three-day strike. They will be at school tomorrow, too, they surely don't want to miss their two-week spring break starting Monday (in Victoria). The union leader is now saying they will not do any report cards "retroactively." That means students will not get report card grades for the first two terms this year, maybe not the last term, either!

Our daughter has been working extremely hard this year, and is making excellent grades. It is very sad that she does not get to see the result of her efforts. Some of her classmates have "blown off" the entire year and have not been doing any school work, no studying for tests, no homework, nothing. What happens? No consequences!

Still no reply from her teacher, either, about those grades we need for her to get into a another district high school.

They're doing it for the kids. 

SwampWitch said:

Teachers were back in the classroom today after a three-day strike. They will be at school tomorrow, too, they surely don't want to miss their two-week spring break starting Monday (in Victoria). The union leader is now saying they will not do any report cards "retroactively." That means students will not get report card grades for the first two terms this year, maybe not the last term, either!

Our daughter has been working extremely hard this year, and is making excellent grades. It is very sad that she does not get to see the result of her efforts. Some of her classmates have "blown off" the entire year and have not been doing any school work, no studying for tests, no homework, nothing. What happens? No consequences!

Still no reply from her teacher, either, about those grades we need for her to get into a another district high school.

They're doing it for the kids. 

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I have never heard of such a thing! I would be LIVID if I were you or your daughter.

Thought I'd post an update on the continuing ridiculousness that is the teacher's union here. 

Our daughter's teacher came through with the grades the last day before spring break, unofficially of course, and she was accepted into a very good secondary school so we are happy about that! Her teacher is one of the few; every other parent I know received only one grade or none at all.

The teachers' union (and teachers) are still pitted against the government and vice versa. A mediator was appointed by the government and thrown out by the teachers' union. Bill 22 was rushed through making it illegal for teachers to strike in BC. They can still do it, but since it's illegal now the fines are tremendous, both for the union and the teachers individually. Teachers have also been ordered to give out Term 2 report cards TODAY (there are 3 terms and so far no official grades have been given out). 

In retaliation, teachers have been ordered by the union to give up their after-school and other "voluntary" duties such as band trips, field trips, sports trips, coaching and games, dances and proms, and graduation ceremonies. Many events and competitions are now JUST GONE in the schools here, things students have worked for all year long!  The question is, if these teacher activities outside of school hours are voluntary, how can the union order them to stop?

At least they are no longer saying, "we're doing it for the kids." (see below)

BC school districts now have the option of changing their calendar, depending on their needs. It's been proven again and again that kids benefit greatly with a 12-month calendar (with lots of breaks) because they can lose up to 1/3 of what they learned during the school year over the long summer! Some districts are considering changing to a 12-month calendar, with many breaks during the year, same amount of school days as the 10-month calendar. Here's what the president of the teachers union had to say about that:

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Susan Lambert said most teachers will be reluctant to give up an extended summer break.

“I can tell you that teachers need their summer break. It’s a very intense profession, where you are teaching for five hours a day, and then doing preparation and marking and evaluation,” she told the Vancouver Sun.

“You can’t do that for 12 months of the year. You need to support the work by renewing yourself,” she said.

Education ministry spokesperson Scott Sutherland told the Star “we were a little stunned to see that the president of the union was going to go that way … but that’s where she went and we were all a little aghast at that.”

“So, this has nothing to do with students from a teacher’s point of view. They need their summers off,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...-b-c-opens-the-door-to-year-round-school?bn=1

One problem with a union is that, contrary to what many believe, it is its job to make the members unhappy, not happy.  If they were happy, they wouldn't join or stay in the union.  The union does that by creating an atmosphere hostile to management.  Do you see the built-in problem, here?