Teachers' Strike

<p>Last Thursday, The British Columbia Teacher's Union decided to illegally walk off the job after the government imposed a contract on them by legislation.</p>

<p>Teachers want:</p>

<p>1) 15% salary increase over 3 years
2) Smaller class sizes
3) The ability for them to strike legally (In BC, education is an essential service and thus, teachers may not strike)</p>

<p>So, I, along with 300,000 other students in BC, have been off school since Friday.</p>

<p>The BC Supreme Court has ruled on Sunday that the teachers are found in contempt of court, and will be fined, but the Union still refuses to go back to work.</p>

<p>What the hell! I hate this socialist country. Since when does anybody get to pick and choose what laws that they obey? Law is a law.</p>

<p>Sure, they might be ****ed off that the government has imposed a contract on them, but what were they supposed to do? The union and the employers' representatives met 35 times but were unable to agree on 1 issue!</p>

<p>So, an essential service was taken away from the students because basically, the teachers are being greedy. What message does this send to students?
If you don't get your way, stop whatever you're doing and ***** and whine about it.</p>

<p>I can't believe this is happening. The strike might even last this entire week.</p>

<p>We had teacher strikes so many times in my 9th year. I loved them all so much! I loved teachers for doing it. I couldn't have cared less about my exams (they were striking out throughout the whole year.. like once every 4-6 weeks or something)
But it must've sucked so bad for the juniors and seniors..</p>

<p>But teachers chose to become a teacher and they knew basically how much they will earn.. If they wanted more money, they should've taken another route :P
Teachers are supposed to teach with passion but there are those loser teachers that got stuck with teaching or something - the angry ones that couldnt care less about students.
Yeah I do not like most teachers.</p>

<p>I feel bad for you.. hope it works out fine!</p>

<p>At least its only one week. We had one a year or two ago that lasted for over SEVEN WEEKS! <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/10/22/teachers.strike.ap/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/10/22/teachers.strike.ap/&lt;/a>
The students had to go to school on some Saturdays, didn't get out till July, and had really short winter and spring breaks.</p>

<p>The teachers are not being greedy, the government needs to pay them more.</p>

<p>The government has all the power, the teacher tried to negociate, but the government won't budge. The teachers have no choice but to do this. Place the blame where the blame belongs: on the government.</p>

<p>Well, the teachers got a 7.5% raise a couple years ago. 150 other unions in the province took a 0-0-0 raise for the next three years. What did the teachers do to deserve a raise?</p>

<p>Also, they are breaking a law to strike. What example does this send to the kids? If you don't get your way, *****, moan, don't go to work, don't obey laws, and pout and you will eventually get your way?</p>

<p>The teachers certainly had a choice. Can they not live with their $35,000 entry-level pay, which escalates to about $78,000 with 10 years of experience? Plus with job security, good hours, and summer, spring, christmas vacations?</p>

<p>What more do they want?</p>

<p>The people voted in the current government. The government represents the people, and the people's government says that education is an essential service; therefore, striking is ILLEGAL. Teachers are breaking a law here. They're disrespecting the government and consequently, the people who voted them in.</p>

<p>the people voted in the government, and now the government isn't doing what it needs to do to keep teachers teaching. Teachers not teaching will anger the general public, who will then elect politicians who will do what is required to get the teachers back.</p>

<p>There is high demand for teachers, and right now, 0 supply. The teachers couldn't strike if there were others to replace them, but they're aren't, which puts the teachers in the position of power.</p>

<p>The teachers are giving up their punishment of fines for their breaking the law without complaint. Maybe the government should put them all in jail?</p>