Toronto news teachers strike Videos

Not all teachers are getting that pay. Just the permanent teachers are, there are many that are getting 30-60 bucks a week for picketing 10 - 20 hours

They get 75% of their pay when striking. Where's my 75% of learning if they're still getting paid for it? And now, they just spontaneously push us back into classes without a proper 24h notification while making us extend the school period into our summer.

Also, the police were happy with a contract renewal, but got an added 8% raise. Why was the government not worried about their debt when they did this? Wynne is covering up for her gas plant scandal and falling face forward. Just like the police, teachers should be designated as an essential service and this should make contract negotiations flow smoother. Since they aren't essential, the only way to send a message, is to strike.

Teachers are NOT asking for a raise. They are happy with a contract renewal. Board/province wants to change the contract completely since the last one ended in August 2014 - because they have the power to. It's called abusing your power.

I'm not going to sit here and explain what it is about. If it's about money, then its about the board saving money by laying a good chunk of teachers off. How will they do this? I'm glad you asked. They will increase the class sizes to 40 (and this can go to 45). This means that about 20% of teachers at the bottom of the seniority list will lose their jobs. That's 20 teachers for every 100. That's one for every five. That's bullshit when you see their chair and other people in the board got raises just last month.

+SonaMona22 Its not about the money so what is it about then. You do realize its about the provincial budget and what the school board to uses the funds for? The province gave them a set budget and they said many times that they are not moving that budget for the school board because pf the massive debt that they caused. Yes schools are over crowded but what should we do, should we spend millions more on building new schools further out away from the city. That is unrealistic. The province is in a deficient if they haven't yet balanced the budget like the promised this passed election. It is not cost effective. the wage freeze was implemented back in 2012 because their wages went up heavily after the recession (cant find the percentage but alot higher than it should be) and the unions were livid because the province also took away special bonus that only teachers banked on ie. "banking on sink days" and "double dipping". Teachers do want to teach children but alot of teachers, if not most don't want to strike. The unions are playing games and are doing local strikes as a way to scare the provincial government into bending over backwards to their needs. The school board that went on strike apparently had the best strike coverage between the boardsalot of people and when i mean people, i mean your everyday customer service worker are finding it real hard to make way in this financial crisis we live in. What school choices are parents going to have when the public school board strikes while the private board may be inadequate or to costly//www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/anatomy-of-an-ontario-teachers-paycheque/article6015968/

+SonaMona22 Firstly all of the questions are rhetorical.  The answers are that when teachers (from public school) go on strike they are striking against "the people" as opposed to striking against a private firm.  We "the people" pay their salaries through taxation.  Therefore when teachers strike they strike against all of us.I believe that if a service is so important that we need to use government to run it that the employees involved in public service should not be able to strike because of the vital importance of the services they provide.  I do not get this opinion through the news as most media outlets in this country are left-wing.Yes class sizes are a problem of course.  If government is going to run out schools then we should advocate for well run schools.  I believe as a Conservative that this should include more school choice, but if we're not going to do that we should make sure there aren't too many students per teacher.  This however is an election issue and should not be an employment issue.  I'm not suggesting that teaching is not an important job or that teachers don't have a serious workload.  I'm not attempting to be insulting to teachers.  The fact is though that there are no vacancies for teachers and this is because people want to teach.  If they didn't feel the compensation for the job was adequate they wouldn't do it.Everything is about money.  Money is just our method of exchange. Everything about human existence revolves around this, this is the reason why kids go to school in the first place so that they can generate the human capital required for them to thrive and generate enough resources for their own family.  If your argument is that teachers teach for the love of teaching, that might be some of it, but its not all of it.At the end of the day if teachers weren't compensated well we would see vacancies for the job.I'm not going to be careful with my opinions.  It is important that different viewpoints are presented for fruitful debate.  I believe that teachers unions provide benefit to teachers at the expense of children.  That teachers having tenure creates a revolving door of poverty for poor kids that live in public housing.  Too often bad teachers are not fired due to the insane process of termination so they are just moved to the worst schools which are generally speaking the inner city schools with the poor kids.  This is why parents need school choice.

+ChooseChoice Your comment is completely flawed and wrong. Just the fact that you have so many questions in it, explains why you're so misinformed and haven't done your research. Please go talk to a teacher. Don't follow what the news is telling you. You probably have been in classrooms that have 30 kids. Imagine having ten more kids in there. Imagine raising a question in such a class, hoping for the teacher to be able to answer. Imagine having this all day. And then imagine being the teacher who has to go home thinking he/she did not teach the kids the best they could because they couldn't answer all the questions. Imagine teachers not even having a prep period to help kids, and sometimes even having just half a lunch because there are lunch duties. Teachers want to teach children. The government is taking that pleasure away from them. It's NOT about the money. Please be careful with your comments.

+Frank M "For the fuckin' love of the children, we are on STRIKE"

+SonaMona22 If you don't like it quit you bunch of crybabies! You make it sound as though you're coal miners 5 miles under the earths crust. If teaching is SUCH a hardship why are there literally thousands in line waiting for you to retire?  They all want to be teachers because it's the easiest ride in the country. Guaranteed job - Guaranteed holidays - Guaranteed benefits - Guaranteed retirement plan. Stop your crying and get back to "work"!  

+Frank M Actually, its not even about the money. It's about the work conditions. Imagine having classes with 40 kids, having lunch duty and no prep. Then, having to stay back after school for the principal. It's stupid

+MrDeaKan Yes! They love the children SOOOO much that they won't be able to teach them properly if they don't get more money. AND if you don't agree then you're a racists.

+Frank M Nooooooooooooo not the children!!!!!!!!

the 'education institution' is too full of bureaucrats... teachers are not to blame.

+Jordan Christopher I agree Jordan. The students are getting so shafted here by a group strictly looking to forward their own cause. I assume they'll repay tuition if classes are cancelled since they have received their full pay. How unethical, how unprofessional. Ridiculous. I say lock them out permanently. You also have to put some of the blame on the administration for allowing this situation to potentially occur. Poor business management.