I WILL VOTE YES. I am a third generation teacher in BC. My grandfather and my mother were part of BCTF battles over the decades against the government for teacher rights. It is a different time and these are different battles, but we need to stand together against the government again. I WILL VOTE YES. My students deserve more than they are receiving right now. They do not know it but students in the near past got a lot more support than todays students. Our students are entitled to the extra supports they need. I teach high ability learners in a core classroom. High ability learners are a vulnerable population that will be supported with class size and composition improvements. They are not included as students with a special need and can get lost in the classroom. They too need the resources that come with smaller classes. I WILL VOTE YES. The BCTF has fought for the rights of teachers for almost 100 years. When it first began, it was a voluntary association. But teachers always knew there was strength in unity. In 1987 teachers were given a choice: be a union with many rights, or an association with few. They overwhelmingly chose rights. And have overwhelmingly chosen to fight for those rights many times since. I WILL VOTE YES. Without the struggles of teachers of the past, we would not have ALL that we have in education today. Our wages, our pensions, our benefits and leave provisions, our sick pay, our prep time, our autonomy and professional development, our curriculum, our solidarity are just a few examples of what we owe to generations of teachers before us, like my mother and grandfather. If we don’t continue to stand together, Christy will get what I speculate she wants, a divided and soon to be destroyed, union. If she breaks our union, she can dictate what education looks like and leave her mark on education in BC. Is that what 100 years of teachers before us would want? I WILL VOTE YES. A yes vote does not mean that I am not concerned about my current personal financial situation. It means that I am concerned about my career in the future. I want to be a teacher in the best public education system we can create for our students. And I refuse to let Christy Clark or anyone else divide us. I WILL VOTE YES. For a moment, let’s look at the future for us. If we vote no and don’t take a stand now, Christy will continue to bully us and I fear, she will start writing new legislation and ripping up old contracts. What will she do next? Will she make membership optional? Will she start to change the rules to our pensions? Will she base salaries on gender? Will she change the qualifications that it takes to be a teacher, making it easier, giving her justification for reducing wages? Will she take the benefits that were bargained for by locals before it became a provincial authority? These are all things that teachers, through the BCTF, fought long and hard to achieve over decades and put into our collective agreement. Based on their track record, I dont trust this government not to rip up more of our contract. We all have our own opinion and our own vote. I strongly encourage you to look beyond our stressful situations of the moment and consider the big picture of education and the BCTF. A yes vote says you care about your future too.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 21:57:33 +0000
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