The Rants of Issachar
Monday, April 24, 2006
Silly BCTF...
What are they thinking?
Three teachers up in the Nicola Valley near Merrit chose not to participate in the illegal strike back in the fall and crossed the picket line. Their local decides to suspend them until they hand over their salary for that time to the union.
Excuse me? What are they thinking? It was an illegal strike! The BCTF would have no chance of winning the case if it ended up in front of the labour relations board. What would give them the idea that they could get away with punishing a teacher for actually obeying the law? And they do this when they're busy negotiating a contract for the fall. Given that their ultimate employer is the provincial government, (which answers only to the electorate), you'd think that they would avoid doing anything that would make them look bad...
(This is after the story the province ran detailing how the union worker salaries signficantly exceed the teachers salaries and include such benefits as unlimited massage therapy, naturopathy, acupuncture and a $500 per year allowance for "erectile disfunction" treatments.)
Do they have any idea who this looks?
Apparently not.
And it didn't last long anyway. That story was in Sunday's province that I read in the staff room before work today. CNews reports today that the union has reinstated the teachers "after being legally advised to do so". Perhaps BCTF President Jinny Sims might have checked with these legal advisors before sending a letter to Margaret Christopherson suggesting that she "donate" her salary for that week to the union and that she was disappointed Ms. Christopherson didn't support public education.
Silly rabbit...
Three teachers up in the Nicola Valley near Merrit chose not to participate in the illegal strike back in the fall and crossed the picket line. Their local decides to suspend them until they hand over their salary for that time to the union.
Excuse me? What are they thinking? It was an illegal strike! The BCTF would have no chance of winning the case if it ended up in front of the labour relations board. What would give them the idea that they could get away with punishing a teacher for actually obeying the law? And they do this when they're busy negotiating a contract for the fall. Given that their ultimate employer is the provincial government, (which answers only to the electorate), you'd think that they would avoid doing anything that would make them look bad...
(This is after the story the province ran detailing how the union worker salaries signficantly exceed the teachers salaries and include such benefits as unlimited massage therapy, naturopathy, acupuncture and a $500 per year allowance for "erectile disfunction" treatments.)
Do they have any idea who this looks?
Apparently not.
And it didn't last long anyway. That story was in Sunday's province that I read in the staff room before work today. CNews reports today that the union has reinstated the teachers "after being legally advised to do so". Perhaps BCTF President Jinny Sims might have checked with these legal advisors before sending a letter to Margaret Christopherson suggesting that she "donate" her salary for that week to the union and that she was disappointed Ms. Christopherson didn't support public education.
Silly rabbit...
