Tuesday, September 16, 2014

BC Teachers Strike Almost Over?

Teachers must still ratify the tentative agreement:
The B.C. Teachers' Federation is recommending its members accept the tentative six-year deal which B.C. Premier Christy Clark is calling "historic." A deal of that length has never been reached with teachers before in the province.

"We have … reached an historic six-year agreement with teachers," Clark said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. "This has never been been done before in British Columbia's history. That means five years of labour peace ahead of us"...

The deal to settle the months-long B.C. public school teachers' strike could have students back in class by Monday, said Clark. Teachers are expected to vote on whether to accept the package Thursday...

Clark said  the deal is a real "game changer" that settles the outstanding grievances from the B.C. Supreme Court decision that ruled in the teachers' favour on class size and composition...

However, the province is still appealing the court ruling and the contract includes a "reopener clause," which in the event of a court decision in the province's favour would allow it to revisit some of those issues.

The deal also includes $100 million more to address class size and composition. The government had been offering to set aside $300 million for a learning improvement fund for teachers but increased it to $400 million in the final deal.

Once the details of the deal are finalized by the bargaining teams, the province's 41,000 public school teachers will have to vote on it before classes can resume.
If they're anything like the teachers in my district, even if the agreement calls for ritual scourging the teachers will vote for it 95%-5%.  Heck, were elections in the Soviet Union even that lopsided?

1 comment:

maxutils said...

I believe they were that lopsided, and I agree with you about your union ... but this sounds like both sides struck a decent deal that work for teachers and kids. I never had the chance to vote for a good deal ...