Teachers on strike | GTAMotorcycle.com

Teachers on strike

mxs

mxs

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Soooo, dear Liberal government, how much longer before we end the charade and let the kids earn the credits they have deserved. I cannot believe what this has come down to .... they all have all the time in the world ... teachers, government, the review commission and school boards. The pace they move at really qualifies for snail category. You can take your free summer time and negotiate for two months there, instead of going on vacations, now is the time to teach, what you've been paid to do in the first place.

I cannot see how any ordinary tax paying citizen with high school kids does not have a problem with teachers and their union as well as the government (of course except for the kids who don't mind the free time ... but they are eventually gonna get it that they will pay the price sooner or later). There's no winners between these two, they are both losers, even if they come back to teach next week.

Absolutely ridiculous.
 
There is little motivation for the government to end the strike. They are saving money by not paying the teachers that are out on strike, I am sure their only issue is not enough of them went out. I think the secondary union did this on purpose to cut down on the savings.

In the end the government will say next year, hey we did better than the budget, see how good we are!
 
mxs said:
Soooo, dear Liberal government, how much longer before we end the charade and let the kids earn the credits they have deserved. I cannot believe what this has come down to .... they all have all the time in the world ... teachers, government, the review commission and school boards. The pace they move at really qualifies for snail category. You can take your free summer time and negotiate for two months there, instead of going on vacations, now is the time to teach, what you've been paid to do in the first place.

I cannot see how any ordinary tax paying citizen with high school kids does not have a problem with teachers and their union as well as the government (of course except for the kids who don't mind the free time ... but they are eventually gonna get it that they will pay the price sooner or later). There's no winners between these two, they are both losers, even if they come back to teach next week.

Absolutely ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it!!! I have 2 kids in high school one who is suppose to go to college is September, has already put deposit for her residence an will not be happy if this effects her from going in sept.
 
fjbabe said:
Tell me about it!!! I have 2 kids in high school one who is suppose to go to college is September, has already put deposit for her residence an will not be happy if this effects her from going in sept.
Click to expand...

Most schools will accept the mid term grades, just do a follow-up with the college admissions. In the end the college is not interested in losing money by reducing the number of first year students because of the strikes.
 
backmarkerducati said:
Most schools will accept the mid term grades, just do a follow-up with the college admissions. In the end the college is not interested in losing money by reducing the number of first year students because of the strikes.
Click to expand...

Really hoping this is the case... Thanks
 
What are they striking for? They need more holidays? More tax payer money? Aren't they already some of the highest paid in the world? Absolutely disgusting how greedy society has gotten. Screw the kids we want our Money and exorbitant benefits....NOW.

In the last 5 years in Canada ive seen more strikes from govt employees then my entire life in Aus. How do these clowns not realise how good they have it? Govt should just abolish their unions and tell them to get back to work or start looking for new work...guarantee there is a line up out the door of young teachers that would take their places.
 
backmarkerducati said:
There is little motivation for the government to end the strike. They are saving money by not paying the teachers that are out on strike, I am sure their only issue is not enough of them went out. I think the secondary union did this on purpose to cut down on the savings.

In the end the government will say next year, hey we did better than the budget, see how good we are!
Click to expand...

The government (us the tax payers) isn't saving money. Any agreement is going to be retroactive.

The game the government is playing is, positioning. They don't want to interfere with the collective bargaining process. So they say they won't order the teachers back until it's absolutely necessary.

So they will wait. And they will order the teachers back. It will go to arbitration. The teachers will get raises and benefit improvements.

The government will have to comply with the agreement and then go the the public and raise taxes to pay the teachers.

The government can't agree to the increases because of optics. So they have to look like it was forced.

The thing is, the game is rigged. Arbitration will always give more than what the government would be willing to offer in the first place.
 
Actually no, they are fighting so the government does not have the right to increase class sizes at their will, so you know your kids (if you have any) don't have to share the class and the teachers attention with other 60 or 80 kids or how many the next politician decides is ok, that among many other things which none include salary increases.
I would suggest you read a little and educate yourself before making such strong arguments on something you even admit you have no clue about! Just saying.

Wonder why people don't get this ****** off at the government for wasting their money on issues like the power plant, but yet they get ****** at teachers. Government trying to pay for their **** ups on the back of your kids education, now there is an editorial you don't hear many people talking about because it is easier to be short minded and blame the teachers.
DownUnder said:
What are they striking for? They need more holidays? More tax payer money? Aren't they already some of the highest paid in the world? Absolutely disgusting how greedy society has gotten. Screw the kids we want our Money and exorbitant benefits....NOW.

In the last 5 years in Canada ive seen more strikes from govt employees then my entire life in Aus. How do these clowns not realise how good they have it? Govt should just abolish their unions and tell them to get back to work or start looking for new work...guarantee there is a line up out the door of young teachers that would take their places.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
fjbabe said:
Tell me about it!!! I have 2 kids in high school one who is suppose to go to college is September, has already put deposit for her residence an will not be happy if this effects her from going in sept.
Click to expand...

I am in exactly the same position. I don't think they will let them forfeit the pre-uni year ... it would create an absolute chaos, not only for the high schools, but also for all the universities. Unless, of course Ontario will be the first jurisdiction in developed world to do that, at least to my knowledge.
 
ZX600 said:
Actually no, they are fighting so the government does not have the right to increase class sizes at their will, so you know your kids (if you have any) don't have to share the class and the teachers attention with other 60 or 80 kids or how many the next politician decides is ok, that among many other things which none include salary increases.
I would suggest you read a little and educate yourself before making such strong arguments on something you even admit you have no clue about! Just saying.

Wonder why people don't get this ****** off at the government for wasting their money on issues like the power plant, but yet they get ****** at teachers. Government trying to pay for their **** ups on the back of your kids education, now there is an editorial you don't hear many people talking about because it is easier to be short minded and blame the teachers.
Click to expand...

I think you need to educate yourself as well ... maybe everyone does. Maybe everyone speaks depending who close in their family has does not have a teaching job. My opinion is pretty clear on the subject you have mentioned. And pls note that I have a teacher in my family, who has been teaching in various places around the world. So if anyone should be biased it would be me ... but I can assure you I am not (the person btw would agree with every word return by me here). I absolutely despise the teacher's union, their tactic and everything around it. The education in the province has improved in the last 15 years, not because of teacher's actions, but because the government acknowledged that it is not where it needs to be and changed various things, including curriculum, class sizes etc. Of course, that every teacher under Ontario's sun will always want the smallest class possible ... even though it is a well documented myth from educational standpoint. the ideal number is actually a little bit higher than what it is now ... it's easier, in their view to teach small number of people or write report cards for. The teacher's have also earned a nice increase since 2003 I believe, whopping 25% or so .... so to hear teachers locally strike because of class sizes is absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately, the law doesn't prohibit it, so that what union bosses figured out to do.

What I say to them is ..... what I would say to them is, you are paid to do your job, that is to teach, whether 20 students or 40 .... if I as a taxpayer don't like what I see with 40 students in the class, I will voice my displeasure with the board or government. But no thanks, I do not want somehow the teachers stating the class size as their reason for a strike. You don't believe that they are really concerned what the students will learn (remind you that the way curriculum is taught today is not what it was when you went to high school; A lot of material is self-studied and downloaded on-line)? Could it be about the teachers instead? Listening to the union bosses, I have no doubt what I think.

I know quite a few teachers who are simply embarrassed to admit that they are union members as they have no choice. The power of this union needs to be really reeled in, it's way beyond any reasonable role this organization should ever play.
 
I am not sure how you decided I needed to educate myself on the topic? My reply was specific to the other poster and not to your comments and I am not going to get into it here in GTAM. Trust me I know this topic very well as my wife is a teacher, and as much as I agree with you in certain comments and I extremely dislike unions, I understand that this specific strike is needed.

Anyways, it is Friday so I am just going to smile and leave you guys here hating on teachers... because at the end it is their fault.
mxs said:
I think you need to educate yourself as well ... maybe everyone does. Maybe everyone speaks depending who close in their family has does not have a teaching job. My opinion is pretty clear on the subject you have mentioned. And pls note that I have a teacher in my family, who has been teaching in various places around the world. So if anyone should be biased it would be me ... but I can assure you I am not (the person btw would agree with every word return by me here). I absolutely despise the teacher's union, their tactic and everything around it. The education in the province has improved in the last 15 years, not because of teacher's actions, but because the government acknowledged that it is not where it needs to be and changed various things, including curriculum, class sizes etc. Of course, that every teacher under Ontario's sun will always want the smallest class possible ... even though it is a well documented myth from educational standpoint. the ideal number is actually a little bit higher than what it is now ... it's easier, in their view to teach small number of people or write report cards for. The teacher's have also earned a nice increase since 2003 I believe, whopping 25% or so .... so to hear teachers locally strike because of class sizes is absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately, the law doesn't prohibit it, so that what union bosses figured out to do.

What I say to them is ..... what I would say to them is, you are paid to do your job, that is to teach, whether 20 students or 40 .... if I as a taxpayer don't like what I see with 40 students in the class, I will voice my displeasure with the board or government. But no thanks, I do not want somehow the teachers stating the class size as their reason for a strike. You don't believe that they are really concerned what the students will learn (remind you that the way curriculum is taught today is not what it was when you went to high school; A lot of material is self-studied and downloaded on-line)? Could it be about the teachers instead? Listening to the union bosses, I have no doubt what I think.

I know quite a few teachers who are simply embarrassed to admit that they are union members as they have no choice. The power of this union needs to be really reeled in, it's way beyond any reasonable role this organization should ever play.
Click to expand...
 
I don't hate teachers, pls read again posts ... but I hate when they let their union bosses to manipulate their noses into things which should be none of their business. Ask your wife, and I am sure she will tell you how these union meetings go .... how the bosses tell them what they really need to support and how it would be a good idea to come out unified as one voice .... it's a joke.

Before you go, pls explain to me why this particular strike is needed (and confirm whether you need the central issue one or the local issue one). Anyone educated I listened to and unbiased in their position, could not come up with a one single reason why this strike is needed in May before the school year end or ever for that reason.

I am seriously interested to know what is so broken and alarmingly wrong in teacher's positions and workplace that they need to go on strike.
 
nakkers said:
The government (us the tax payers) isn't saving money. Any agreement is going to be retroactive.

The game the government is playing is, positioning. They don't want to interfere with the collective bargaining process. So they say they won't order the teachers back until it's absolutely necessary.

So they will wait. And they will order the teachers back. It will go to arbitration. The teachers will get raises and benefit improvements.

The government will have to comply with the agreement and then go the the public and raise taxes to pay the teachers.

The government can't agree to the increases because of optics. So they have to look like it was forced.

The thing is, the game is rigged. Arbitration will always give more than what the government would be willing to offer in the first place.
Click to expand...

The pay may be retroactive to the date the old contract expired but they will NOT get paid for the time they are off. This is how it works, full stop. So everyday they are off is a day's pay the gov saves, hence there is no motivation to settle.

If they settled before a strike, well then the gov pays them retro to the last contract and does not save the days pay for each day they were out (becuase they were never out).

This is of course a marked difference between public and private sector strikes, in the private sector (assuming the company makes money) each day out is a day's lost revenue on the widget they are selling/making. In the public it is all cost centres so each day out is a day's pay saved (per person out).

mxs said:
I don't hate teachers, pls read again posts ... but I hate when they let their union bosses to manipulate their noses into things which should be none of their business. Ask your wife, and I am sure she will tell you how these union meetings go .... how the bosses tell them what they really need to support and how it would be a good idea to come out unified as one voice .... it's a joke.

Before you go, pls explain to me why this particular strike is needed (and confirm whether you need the central issue one or the local issue one). Anyone educated I listened to and unbiased in their position, could not come up with a one single reason why this strike is needed in May before the school year end or ever for that reason.

I am seriously interested to know what is so broken and alarmingly wrong in teacher's positions and workplace that they need to go on strike.
Click to expand...

The issues are Ontario wide and not local. The main issues are not increases in anything but the gov is trying to remove things already faught and won. Class size is one of the issues along with pension etc. Their union is the has the worst PR people in the world, like many posts here the public does not have an idea what the issues are and everyone thinks it is $$$$$$$$$$$$...

The secodnary union came up with the idea of a partial strike(s) so that the 2/3 working can subsidize the 1/3 out on strike so they can all stay out longer with less hardship. My guess this also makes it harder to legislate them back to work since once they do the next 1/3 walks. I have not checked but I bet the strikes are in areas where the Liberal hold on the riding(s) is/are weakest, at least that is what I would have done.


How do I know all this, well my wife is a teacher but more importantly I can read...
 
Last edited:
So the lazy c@#$% want smaller classes so they have less report cards to write? Smaller classes also mean more teachers needed which is more union dues... This is a joke, lets screw thousands of childrens education because were lazy...

My brothers auntys uncles is a teacher and they work hard and care for the kids.... yeah, likely story LOL
 
DownUnder said:
So the lazy c@#$% want smaller classes so they have less report cards to write? Smaller classes also mean more teachers needed which is more union dues... This is a joke, lets screw thousands of childrens education because were lazy...
Click to expand...

The less time teachers can spend with students who need extra help larger class size is detrimental to learning.. couple that with have less TA's and the government un-necessarily wanting to control what teachers use their prep time for.
 
Last edited:
One of the core issues here is the differences in non-pay benefits between public employees of the province. This is things like sick days, parental responsibility days, maternity/paternity leave (top-up), banked sick days, pension payment matching, etc.

What the Ontario (or any) government should do is set a "Fair Provincial Workers Act" and legislate all these items for all Ontario public (government) workers and do their best to take these items off the table. What happens today is the Nurses get X sick days, the teachers, police, etc. then expect to get X. Then the nurses look at the cops and say, hey they got Y pension, why don’t we…

So legislate these items, pick numbers are not the peak but are fair across the board. Make it a VERY public process so the public actually knows the details of what they get. Some will go up in some areas, some down. Now each contract these items are fixed and do not change, if the union wants to change it then they need to work together with the public and have the legislation updated.

Now we are left with working conditions and pay. If they strike on any of the above items and force the issue, well then just lay off whatever percentage the extra costs us. Or do McGuinty/Rae days. Play hardball.
 
DownUnder said:
So the lazy c@#$% want smaller classes so they have less report cards to write? Smaller classes also mean more teachers needed which is more union dues... This is a joke, lets screw thousands of childrens education because were lazy...

My brothers auntys uncles is a teacher and they work hard and care for the kids.... yeah, likely story LOL
Click to expand...

haters gonna hate
 
ZX600 said:
Actually no, they are fighting so the government does not have the right to increase class sizes at their will, so you know your kids (if you have any) don't have to share the class and the teachers attention with other 60 or 80 kids or how many the next politician decides is ok, that among many other things which none include salary increases.
I would suggest you read a little and educate yourself before making such strong arguments on something you even admit you have no clue about! Just saying.

Wonder why people don't get this ****** off at the government for wasting their money on issues like the power plant, but yet they get ****** at teachers. Government trying to pay for their **** ups on the back of your kids education, now there is an editorial you don't hear many people talking about because it is easier to be short minded and blame the teachers.
Click to expand...
Your friends & family can do no wrong, can they?
 
I am not surprised that anyone who has a close family member teaching is somewhat biased and the opinions usually show it. I have yet to meet anyone who can admit that the teaching gig is a pretty good one whether the class has 20 or 40 kids, the benefits are very good. If a teacher works hard during school year (hard to say what the ratio is ... Going by my own kid schools, i would guess 75% do 25% just ride the good wave) the deserve summer to recharge the batteries.

Province funds the education, province decides school class size in sync with local school boards. Not for a debate by teacher's union only up for a debate by tax payers during election years.

Let's get the show back on the road into a class where it belongs, because I am getting tired of driving by the union members on the way to work by three different schools trying to make me honk in their support. Which I do, but they have no idea what I am saying along ....

Mrs. Wynne, to you specifically, I am still waiting for the fire you will light up under everyone involved. So far, you have been a spectator and the silence is deafening. Pls get going .....

I have gone through various teachers strike elsewhere, but that was always about teachers being underpaid, which was true, but hardly the case here ... Ontario's class size is a new one. I have lived here 16 years and still learning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom