By David F. Rooney
Revelstoke’s teachers endured another day of walking the picket lines outside School District 19’s facilities on Tuesday, June 3, buoyed by honks and waves from passers-by and the lyrics of a very amusing protest song by Daniel J.K. Ross.
Meanwhile, the BCTF says its provincial bargaining team adjusted the federation’s package in seven areas including salary, benefits, preparation time, and TTOC compensation during the June 3 bargaining session.
“Despite these important moves by the BCTF, the government responded with nothing,” says a statement from the BCTF. “They did not provide a single counter or adjust any of their proposals. To date, the employer has steadfastly refused to put a single dollar on the table to improve student learning conditions like class size, composition, and staffing levels for specialist teachers. Their proposal would essentially re-strip what the BC Supreme Court awarded teachers.”
And today, nothing changed, the union says.
“The government and BCSPEA continue to ignore the real challenges facing teachers and students. Once again, the employer did nothing to bring the two sides closer together.”
On salary, the BCTF reduced its proposed increases by a full percentage point over four years. The proposed increases would be 3% in Year One, followed by 2.25%, 2.25%, and 2.25% in the following three years. That brings the BCTF salary proposal down to 9.75% plus various cost of living percentages. The current proposal is now:
| Effective: | |
| July 1, 2013 | 3% |
| January 1, 2014 | 0.5% of COLA |
| July 1, 2014 | 2.25% |
| January 1, 2015 | 0.5% of COLA |
| July 1, 2015 | 2.25% |
| January 1, 2016 | 0.75% of COLA |
| July 1, 2016 | 2.25% |
| January 1, 2017 | 1% of COLA |
Salaries are one thing, discussions on class size and composition are another and there appears to be no progress on that front. Nor may there by unless parents — who should be concerned about class size and composition because those two factors directly affect the quality of in-class instruction — speak out in large numbers.
When it comes to the education of our children the public has an absolute right to demand better from teachers, elected officials of all kinds and the bureaucrats in Victoria.
If you’d like to register your anger and/or unhappiness over the current state of affairs please send an e-mail or a letter to:
Christy Clark
Premier of British Columbia
premier@gov.bc.ca
Mailing address:
PO BOX 9041
STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA, BC,
V8W 9E1
Peter Fassbender
Minister of Education
educ.minister@gov.bc.ca
Mailing address:
PO BOX 9045
STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA, BC,
V8W 9E2
Michael Marchbank
CEO of the BC Public School Employers’ Association
This is a generic e-mail as Marchbank is surrounded by minions but does not himself appear on the BCPSEA contact page, meaning he is virtually an invisible man.
contact.us@bcpsea.bc.ca
Mailing address:
400-1333 WEST BROADWAY,
VANCOUVER, BC, V6H 4C1
Jim Iker
President of the BC Teachers’ Federation
presidentsoffice@bctf.ca
Mailing address:
100 – 550 WEST 6th AVENUE,
VANCOUVER, BC, V5Z 4P2
Alan Chell
Chairman of School District 19 (Revelstoke)
This is Alan’s own e-mail address
achell@live.com
Mailing address:
PO BAG 5800
501 – 11th STREET EAST
REVELSTOKE, BC, V0E 2S0
Click the link below to hear LNG_vs _BCTF:
