Anybody tired of the Teacher's Strikes? | Page 13 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Anybody tired of the Teacher's Strikes?

Here you go - this seems to be written in 2015:
Teacher strikes: Ontario strikes and lockouts since 1987
There’s hasn’t been a full-blown strike or lockout involving Ontario’s secondary school teachers since 1997.
The current strikes in Durham, Sudbury and Peel mark the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s first all-out job actions in 18 years.
There have been targeted job actions, such as work to rule campaigns that eliminated extracurriculars, but no full-fledged, full-scale walkouts.
Here’s a list of Ontario school job actions going back to that mother of all teachers’ strikes:

Halloween 2013: Elementary and junior high school teachers across Ontario
The teachers staged a one-day walkout in response to collective agreements imposed by the McGuinty government.

Dec. 18, 2012: Toronto, Peel and Durham public elementary boards
They walked off the job and shut down schools, joined by teachers at five other boards across Ontario: Greater Essex in the Windsor area, Lambton-Kent in Sarnia and Chatham, Waterloo, Grand Erie in Brantford and Near North in North Bay.
This was the climax of a series of rotating one-day strikes over the previous weeks protesting Bill 115, which allowed the province to impose labour contracts on teachers and limited their ability to strike. (It was later repealed.)

May 16, 2003: Toronto Catholic District School Board
The board locked out its elementary school teachers, who had been without a contract since August and had been working to rule since February.
The board maintained it could not afford to pay teachers a raise of more than 6.5 per cent over two years.
The union sought at least 7.5 per cent.
The lockout lasted 12 days and schools reopened after the Ontario government passed back-to-work legislation on June 2, 2003.

Nov. 4, 2002: Simcoe Muskoka secondary students
A teachers’ strike shut down Catholic high schools across cottage country, affecting more than 7,000 students.
After a week of rotating one-day walkouts, teachers launched its full-scale strike over wages and working conditions.
That strike ended after three weeks with back-to-work legislation.

Nov. 30, 2002: Simcoe-Muskoka Catholic District School Board
More than 15,000 elementary school students with the Simcoe-Muskoka Catholic District School Board were off the job for two weeks.
The strike ended when their union, which represented 800 elementary school teachers at 41 schools, agreed to voluntary arbitration.

Nov. 29, 1998: York Region elementary teachers
There were two months of strife across the region’s 108 public elementary schools.
Rotating strikes shut about 20 schools for a day.
The 3,214 elementary teachers worked to rule. The board responded by locking them out for five days. The teachers answered back with the rotating strikes.

Sept. 29, 1998: Teachers across province
School started late for some 210,000 students from eight school boards across Ontario, after the three parties in the Ontario Legislature brokered a deal to get a back-to-work bill introduced and passed into law.
There had been a collection of teachers’ strikes and school board lockouts, costing 133,000 students in the GTA 15 days of classes.

Oct. 27, 1997: Teachers across province
A province-wide, two-week strike was staged in protest of Bill 160, which increased the time teachers were expected to spend in front of students.
Principals and vice-principals joined the strikers, which outraged the government. It affected 2.1 million elementary and secondary students.
The legislation was passed, despite the mass job action.

Oct. 18, 1987: Metro elementary school teachers
Metro Toronto’s first strike by public elementary school teachers affected 157,000 students and lasted 26 days.
A key issue was preparation time.
The union wanted 200 minutes a week. The board eventually settled for 100 minutes in the first year of the contract and 120 minutes in the second year.
 
You didn't read the article you just quoted. I don't know why you even bother typing.
My message quote was in response to a post - I didn't insert the article myself.
But, according to Global News, Starting this past 2019...

Dec. 4
OSSTF holds a one-day province-wide walkout, closing public high schools and other schools with OSSTF members.

Dec. 11
OSSTF holds its second one-day strike, this time only at select boards. It is the first of several rotating strikes which have continued weekly through January.

Jan. 13
OECTA begins administrative job action, including no longer completing report cards, participating in EQAO-related activities, or attending initiatives by the Ministry of Education.

Jan. 16
AEFO begins a work-to-rule campaign for its members. The move means all four major teachers’ unions in Ontario are participating in some form of job action.

Jan. 20
ETFO takes part in the first of several daily rotating strikes during the week of Jan. 20. School boards in Toronto, York Region, and Ottawa are among the first affected.

Jan. 21
OECTA has a full withdrawal of services throughout the province leading to the closure of publicly-funded Catholic schools. Meanwhile, ETFO and OSSTF continue with rotating strikes.

Feb. 6
ETFO members hold a provincewide walkout, with a second one planned for Feb. 11.

Feb. 11
ETFO holds another provincewide walkout.

Feb. 12
All four of the province’s teacher unions announce a one-day, provincewide walkout for Feb. 21.

Feb. 13
AEFO holds its first provincewide walkout, meaning all four of the province’s teachers’ unions are now engaged in strike action.

Feb. 21
All four of the province’s largest teachers’ unions engage in a provincewide walkout — the largest in Ontario since 1997. In Toronto, thousands of educators surrounded Queen’s Park, leading to road closures.

That's what, 11 actions alone since beginning of December?
I get it, there are a bunch of school teachers and union members here on GTAM. So be it. But, these job actions affect a massive number of people and cause incredible disruptions to business etc. You want to strike? Go for it. Do it in the summer months when you're not having a direct effect on innocent people's pocket books. Too many people live cheque to cheque and have incredible difficulties caused by these job actions.

I have friends who are school teachers. One complains regularly about how many extra hours they need to put in for report cards etc. But, that individual is kind of "flakey" - for lack of a better term. Work on school stuff for 20 minutes, do other stuff for 45 minutes, back to school stuff, break again for 45 minutes.. at the end of the day, they say it took them all day on school stuff. Another friend sits, down, does all the stuff in about 3 hours early in the day and gets on with life, having nearly a full day to themselves and doesn't complain about it.

In the end, we've all fallen into the "Look out for #1 - yourself" before anything else. More more more. It's never enough.
 
Can't. The Star sucks. I refuse to visit any site that buries content behind a paywall.

*Sidenote* If you really want to read an article on a site that's paywall'd, copy + paste the link in a private browser/ incognito window. They still haven't figured out a workaround for that yet.
 
If it was such a stressful job the turnover would be massive.
If it was such a stressful job there wouldnt be thousands of young teachers waiting in the wings.
If it was such a stressful job teachers would actually retire with full pension at the earliest date of eligibility.

Where do you think snowflakery originated? In our education system that's where.
I don't know if you read my previous post but this is the reality for too many kids in our school system. Trying to control my 2 kids is already stressful, and i personally know them and have control over them.
Trying to control the kind of class my daughter was in would be, to me, an absolute nightmare. And i'm pretty sure when they signed up a decade or 2 ago, the situation wasn't as dire. That teacher's job is to act as a bodyguard against abusive kids while not being allowed to restrain said kids (that's how last principal got... removed from our school, by stopping one kid from hitting another) That same kid sent an EA to the hospital who then went on leave.
So why would a teacher ask for a raise that matches inflation? Maybe because of that kind of environment.
And then just when you think you have some control, summer vacation arrive and you get ready to start the same cycle of craziness, rolling the dice on seeing what kind of kids you get. Rolling the dice on what kind of EA you're gonna get or if you're gonna get any.
Rolling the dice on what kind of parent you're gonna get (one that supports their special need kid or one that won't take the steps necessary to make everyone's life easier) Rolling the dice on the principal since they seem to trade them like hockey cards.
You wouldn't have a (conservative) 30% of people dropping out of that profession in the first 5 years if it were that easy.
 
They haven't been on strike in 20 years.

Partial list of recent strikes (where does the Star get their stuff?)

Dec 2012: OSSTF partial strike, members limited work to 240 minutes/day for 1 month.
Dec 2012: Toronto, Peel, Durham, Greater Essex, Lambton, Chatham, Waterloo, Grand Erie, and Near North elementary schools.
Jan 2013: ETFO & OSSTF planned a one-day, province wide walkout. OLRB ruled the walkout is an illegal strike and the teachers called off the one-day strike. Greater Essex County District School Board did strike despite the OLRB ruling
Oct 2013: 1 day general strike
April 2015: Peel District School Board, Durham District School Board, Rainbow District School Board
May 2015: Peel District School Board, Halton, Ottawa-Carelton District School Board. On May 26, 2015, the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled the teachers strike was unlawful. Classes resumed in Durham, Rainbow and Peel the following day on May 27, 2015.
April 2016: Trillium Lakelands District School Board and Toronto District School Board partial strike, refused to do administrative work or write report cards
May 2016: Rainy River District School Board rotating weekly one-day strikes.
 
I don't know if you read my previous post but this is the reality for too many kids in our school system. Trying to control my 2 kids is already stressful, and i personally know them and have control over them.
Trying to control the kind of class my daughter was in would be, to me, an absolute nightmare. And i'm pretty sure when they signed up a decade or 2 ago, the situation wasn't as dire. That teacher's job is to act as a bodyguard against abusive kids while not being allowed to restrain said kids (that's how last principal got... removed from our school, by stopping one kid from hitting another) That same kid sent an EA to the hospital who then went on leave.
So why would a teacher ask for a raise that matches inflation? Maybe because of that kind of environment.
And then just when you think you have some control, summer vacation arrive and you get ready to start the same cycle of craziness, rolling the dice on seeing what kind of kids you get. Rolling the dice on what kind of EA you're gonna get or if you're gonna get any.
Rolling the dice on what kind of parent you're gonna get (one that supports their special need kid or one that won't take the steps necessary to make everyone's life easier) Rolling the dice on the principal since they seem to trade them like hockey cards.
You wouldn't have a (conservative) 30% of people dropping out of that profession in the first 5 years if it were that easy.
Every teacher I know that "dropped out" either went to work for a family company ($$$$), became a full time parent or retired in their early 50's.
 
There was a strike in 2015 or does it not count because every single teacher in the province wasnt part of it?
that is exactly my point....once in the last 20 years for one day. You read the article and found one day since 98.
 
Partial list of recent strikes (where does the Star get their stuff?)

Dec 2012: OSSTF partial strike, members limited work to 240 minutes/day for 1 month.
Dec 2012: Toronto, Peel, Durham, Greater Essex, Lambton, Chatham, Waterloo, Grand Erie, and Near North elementary schools.
Jan 2013: ETFO & OSSTF planned a one-day, province wide walkout. OLRB ruled the walkout is an illegal strike and the teachers called off the one-day strike. Greater Essex County District School Board did strike despite the OLRB ruling
Oct 2013: 1 day general strike
April 2015: Peel District School Board, Durham District School Board, Rainbow District School Board
May 2015: Peel District School Board, Halton, Ottawa-Carelton District School Board. On May 26, 2015, the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled the teachers strike was unlawful. Classes resumed in Durham, Rainbow and Peel the following day on May 27, 2015.
April 2016: Trillium Lakelands District School Board and Toronto District School Board partial strike, refused to do administrative work or write report cards
May 2016: Rainy River District School Board rotating weekly one-day strikes.
Again....in KW where Big Evil Doer is (and of course I am) there has been one strike day in 22 years. And even then it was the public board only. So here in KW....1 day for some and none for some.....in 22 years.
 
Every teacher I know that "dropped out" either went to work for a family company ($$$$), became a full time parent or retired in their early 50's.
One of my neighbors told me he probably would've "choked the little fawkers if he kept doing it"
Others think it's easy mode bEcAuSe tHeY gEt thE whOooooLe suMmeR oFffff but face the reality that it's not as easy, takes a big well of patience, enough insight to know what works and sometimes some extra work here and there.

It's not for everyone lol
My dad was a teacher, taught for a whole careers-worth, then started his own business (language school for ESL in Quebec) and it was our family business for a while. Then as a family we all split and that ended up dying a few years later. But we had a good run for about a decade!
 
I don't know if you read my previous post but this is the reality for too many kids in our school system. Trying to control my 2 kids is already stressful, and i personally know them and have control over them.
Trying to control the kind of class my daughter was in would be, to me, an absolute nightmare. And i'm pretty sure when they signed up a decade or 2 ago, the situation wasn't as dire. That teacher's job is to act as a bodyguard against abusive kids while not being allowed to restrain said kids (that's how last principal got... removed from our school, by stopping one kid from hitting another) That same kid sent an EA to the hospital who then went on leave.
So why would a teacher ask for a raise that matches inflation? Maybe because of that kind of environment.
And then just when you think you have some control, summer vacation arrive and you get ready to start the same cycle of craziness, rolling the dice on seeing what kind of kids you get. Rolling the dice on what kind of EA you're gonna get or if you're gonna get any.
Rolling the dice on what kind of parent you're gonna get (one that supports their special need kid or one that won't take the steps necessary to make everyone's life easier) Rolling the dice on the principal since they seem to trade them like hockey cards.
You wouldn't have a (conservative) 30% of people dropping out of that profession in the first 5 years if it were that easy.

You call it dropping out of the profession, private sector workers call it a career change. I’ve had three career changes when I didn’t like the direction or current situation. It’s not a big deal, really. For some reason union workers think the answer of “just leave” if you don’t like the current gig is not an option.

We all make compromises with our careers, teachers are no different. I travel for work so am in airports on a Sunday night when I’d rather be grilling steaks and having a beer with my kids. I also work 60 hours a week sometimes and have conference calls with different time zones, so can be on a call at 8pm or 6am. Nobody is holding a gun to anyone’s head, if you don’t like your gig, change careers. It’s no big deal, really.
 
I don't know if you read my previous post but this is the reality for too many kids in our school system. Trying to control my 2 kids is already stressful, and i personally know them and have control over them.
Trying to control the kind of class my daughter was in would be, to me, an absolute nightmare. And i'm pretty sure when they signed up a decade or 2 ago, the situation wasn't as dire. That teacher's job is to act as a bodyguard against abusive kids while not being allowed to restrain said kids (that's how last principal got... removed from our school, by stopping one kid from hitting another) That same kid sent an EA to the hospital who then went on leave.
So why would a teacher ask for a raise that matches inflation? Maybe because of that kind of environment.
And then just when you think you have some control, summer vacation arrive and you get ready to start the same cycle of craziness, rolling the dice on seeing what kind of kids you get. Rolling the dice on what kind of EA you're gonna get or if you're gonna get any.
Rolling the dice on what kind of parent you're gonna get (one that supports their special need kid or one that won't take the steps necessary to make everyone's life easier) Rolling the dice on the principal since they seem to trade them like hockey cards.
You wouldn't have a (conservative) 30% of people dropping out of that profession in the first 5 years if it were that easy.
Show me your source stating 30% drop out after gaining full time.

The issues you mention are a direct result of a lack of discipline, coddling of children, everyone is a winner mentality, not being spanked etc.
Much of this nonsense originated in the education system over the past few decades and now it has fostered itself in our universities which were historically a space of free thinking. Now we have safe spaces for overgrown children.

Kids should be restrained with force if necessary. Maybe the lack of masculinity is having a negative effect. 80%+ of educators are woman

I grew up partly in Northern Ireland. The kids there were far more unruly and tougher than they are here today. Far worse, let me tell you.
My uncle went to a particularly rough boys high school. Half the people he went to high school with ended up dead or in jail.

Like I said before, if it is so bad, so stressful why do we not see teachers leaving in droves? Why is there a 5 year waiting list for full time positions?
Whats a raise going to do with the issues your describing above?
You increase compensation to attract people due to a shortage of skilled people. Clearly there is an oversupply of young teachers.
 
Show me your source stating 30% drop out after gaining full time.

The issues you mention are a direct result of a lack of discipline, coddling of children, everyone is a winner mentality, not being spanked etc.
Much of this nonsense originated in the education system over the past few decades and now it has fostered itself in our universities which were historically a space of free thinking. Now we have safe spaces for overgrown children.

Kids should be restrained with force if necessary. Maybe the lack of masculinity is having a negative effect. 80%+ of educators are woman

I grew up partly in Northern Ireland. The kids there were far more unruly and tougher than they are here today. Far worse, let me tell you.
My uncle went to a particularly rough boys high school. Half the people he went to high school with ended up dead or in jail.

Like I said before, if it is so bad, so stressful why do we not see teachers leaving in droves? Why is there a 5 year waiting list for full time positions?
Whats a raise going to do with the issues your describing above?
You increase compensation to attract people due to a shortage of skilled people. Clearly there is an oversupply of young teachers.
Agree. There is a significant problem with out-of-control children. Higher salaries or the occasional EA will do nothing to solve this problem. There needs to be a targeted approach and funding to deal with this specific problem. Adding to the general fund with no plan on how to make the monsters become a productive part of society is just lighting more money on fire with no upside.
 
Show me your source stating 30% drop out after gaining full time.

The issues you mention are a direct result of a lack of discipline, coddling of children, everyone is a winner mentality, not being spanked etc.
Much of this nonsense originated in the education system over the past few decades and now it has fostered itself in our universities which were historically a space of free thinking. Now we have safe spaces for overgrown children.

Kids should be restrained with force if necessary. Maybe the lack of masculinity is having a negative effect. 80%+ of educators are woman

I grew up partly in Northern Ireland. The kids there were far more unruly and tougher than they are here today. Far worse, let me tell you.
My uncle went to a particularly rough boys high school. Half the people he went to high school with ended up dead or in jail.

Like I said before, if it is so bad, so stressful why do we not see teachers leaving in droves? Why is there a 5 year waiting list for full time positions?
Whats a raise going to do with the issues your describing above?
You increase compensation to attract people due to a shortage of skilled people. Clearly there is an oversupply of young teachers.

And yes some kids definitely need to be restrained. But you have to be "trained to restrain special needs kids" and even then, it seems to be more complicated and the symptoms we are witnessing in kids comes from a deeper problem that's in society and in the home. But in the meantime, you're saying "all this bullcrap has changed, we won't let you control your class in the most effective way, BUT, keep the same pay, and accept our "sorry for having a ****** society and new gen of snowflakes" as being enough compensation for it. They're in a crappy position right now and until it's fixed (won't happen for years probably) i feel like monetary compensation is a good temporary way to let them deal with the pile of crap they've been served.
I'm in the private financial sector and might stay with my current employer because i score a defined benefit pension before it got phased out for newer employees. Also because there's a nice understanding that work/family balance is important from my boss to about 2 other levels up. Could i be happier somewhere else? Probably, but i'm happy enough here (and not miserable) to not switch over. If the compensation wasn't good enough to keep up with my increasing townhouse condo fees (that are way more than 2% yearly) along with cost of living increasing alarmingly fast, i would probably be more incline to take my experience elsewhere.

Agree. There is a significant problem with out-of-control children. Higher salaries or the occasional EA will do nothing to solve this problem. There needs to be a targeted approach and funding to deal with this specific problem. Adding to the general fund with no plan on how to make the monsters become a productive part of society is just lighting more money on fire with no upside.
Higher salaries and the full time EAs will allowed them to deal with the situation while we find a targeted approach to make
- their lives easier
- a better way to include/integrate 'monsters' lol

Just like the government is so fast to give money to parents inconvenienced by the strikes, we're giving the teachers money for the inconvenience of violence in the classroom, and curriculum disruptions caused by the 'snowflake' syndrome.
 
Higher salaries and the full time EAs will allowed them to deal with the situation while we find a targeted approach to make
- their lives easier
- a better way to include/integrate 'monsters' lol

Just like the government is so fast to give money to parents inconvenienced by the strikes, we're giving the teachers money for the inconvenience of violence in the classroom, and curriculum disruptions caused by the 'snowflake' syndrome.
The monsters aren't an inconvenience. In many cases they are dangerous and a detriment to the learning of all others. Adding money or an EA does absolutely nothing to solve a child (and often multiple children) in a class that have no control over their emotions and who start throwing/hitting/smashing things and people.

I know some kids that were sent to bad kid school (Section 21?), got kicked out and put back into regular public school. If they can't be dealt with at a 4:1 ratio, how could any reasonable person think that putting them in a 26:1 or 13:1 situation will work out? That situation needs an immediate intervention (psychologist, behavioural therapist, boot camp, etc) to realign them with society.

For all the complaining the teachers do about violence and working conditions, their situation is many times better than nurses and especially psw's who make a lot less, deal with much worse, work many more hours and don't spend all of their off-hours bitching about how bad their job is.
 
The monsters aren't an inconvenience. In many cases they are dangerous and a detriment to the learning of all others. Adding money or an EA does absolutely nothing to solve a child (and often multiple children) in a class that have no control over their emotions and who start throwing/hitting/smashing things and people.

I know some kids that were sent to bad kid school (Section 21?), got kicked out and put back into regular public school. If they can't be dealt with at a 4:1 ratio, how could any reasonable person think that putting them in a 26:1 or 13:1 situation will work out? That situation needs an immediate intervention (psychologist, behavioural therapist, boot camp, etc) to realign them with society.

For all the complaining the teachers do about violence and working conditions, their situation is many times better than nurses and especially psw's who make a lot less, deal with much worse, work many more hours and don't spend all of their off-hours bitching about how bad their job is.

From what I hear the only "bitching" teachers seem to be doing is asking that their salaries keep up with inflation and that sufficient investment in the country's future be made.
 
The monsters aren't an inconvenience. In many cases they are dangerous and a detriment to the learning of all others. Adding money or an EA does absolutely nothing to solve a child (and often multiple children) in a class that have no control over their emotions and who start throwing/hitting/smashing things and people.

I know some kids that were sent to bad kid school (Section 21?), got kicked out and put back into regular public school. If they can't be dealt with at a 4:1 ratio, how could any reasonable person think that putting them in a 26:1 or 13:1 situation will work out? That situation needs an immediate intervention (psychologist, behavioural therapist, boot camp, etc) to realign them with society.
Yes sir. I guess they didn't have a backout plan for this new method and just kept going with it.
 

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