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Posted in BC Education, K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions
Tagged K-12 issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions
With overwhelming support, BC Teachers approved a motion to strike. The vote was cast “to resist the unjust actions of the provincial government in yet again moving to impose a contract on the province’s 41,000 public school teachers. A total of 27,946 teachers voted yes in a province-wide vote conducted February 28 and 29, 2012. In all, 32,209 teachers cast ballots, of whom 87% voted yes.” See the BCTF for updates.
The full scale strike, limited to 3 days by the BC Labour Relations Board, begins on Monday morning (6 March). On 27 January, BC teachers wore black (see BCTF Teacher p. 18), to mark the 10th anniversary of Bills 27 and 28, which stripped their collective agreements of class size, composition, and specialist service-levels language. Bill 22 is now threatening to undermine the teachers’ bargaining rights even more.
Labour advocates see this courageous escalation of job action as a spark for solidarity for coalescing the BC labour movement. At the University of British Columbia, CUPE and FAUBC contracts are in bargaining and at least two bargaining units, CUPE 116 and CUPE 2278, are looking at job action scenarios. Many BCTF members teach at the University and the BCTF strike may once again force the Faculty of Education to play its hand, as was the case for the 2005 BC teachers strike as university professors turned out in support and documented the 2005 strike. Look for leadership here from UBC’s Institute for Critical Education Studies.
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Posted in BC Education, Government, K-12 issues, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged K-12 issues, Salary/Economic Benefits, Strikes & Labor Disputes
CTV: B.C. teachers plan strike vote, gov’t prepares bill
The ongoing contract dispute between British Columbia teachers and the provincial government is promising to heat up before it cools down, as each side prepares its next move.
Teachers have been on a limited strike since September, and while they can’t legally walk off the job, they’ve been refusing to perform administrative duties like filling out report cards.
On Friday, the BC Teachers’ Federation, which represent 41,000 members, announced it will hold strike votes province wide, asking educators Tuesday and Wednesday whether they want to escalate limited teach-only action to a full-scale walkout.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged BCTF, British Columbia, Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Record: Laurier could face strike by faculty in early March
WATERLOO — Full-time faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University will be in a legal strike position on March 3 if a contract settlement isn’t reached with the university.
The Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association said Wednesday that 520 members approved a strike mandate with a 91 per cent vote last Friday. The group includes 19 librarians. Their contract ran out on July 1.
Main issues include salaries and pensions, both sides said.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Collective bargaining, Ontario, pensions, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Wilfrid Laurier U
CBC: Dalhousie faculty vote 83% in favour of strikehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/02/17/ns-dalhousie-faculty-strike-vote.html
The Dalhousie Faculty Association has voted 83 per cent in favor of a strike.
Anthony Stewart, president of the association said the vote will send a message to Dalhousie University that the faculty is serious about getting a fair deal.
The biggest issue for the faculty association members is protecting their pensions.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
NUT teaching union unanimously backs a March walkout
The NUT teachers’ union is pushing for a coordinated, national public sector strike in March over pensions. The union’s national executive committee passed a resolution committing the general secretary and deputy general secretary to …
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged NUT, Strikes & Labor Disputes, UK
The Guardian: Day of strikes as millions heed unions’ call to fight pension cuts
• Disruption across UK as many services come to virtual halt
• Airports, schools, rail services and hospitals affected
• Reform of public sector pensions is at heart of dispute
The UK is experiencing the worst disruption to services in decades as more than 2 million public sector workers stage a nationwide strike, closing schools and bringing councils and hospitals to a virtual standstill.
The strike by more than 30 unions over cuts to public sector pensions started at midnight, leading to the closure of most state schools; cancellation of refuse collections; rail service and tunnel closures; the postponement of thousands of non-emergency hospital operations; and possible delays at airports and ferry terminals.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions
Tagged pension cuts, Strikes, UK
The Chronicle: Faculty Strikes at Southern Illinois-Carbondale, but Deal Is Struck With 3 Other Unions
The union representing tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale announced shortly after midnight that it was going out on strike, following months of turbulent negotations with the administration there. According to a statement issued by the union, the SIUC Faculty Association, among the chief remaining sticking points in contract talks are the university’s policies on furloughs, the laying off of tenured faculty members, and allegations of conflict of interest and sexual harassment against faculty members. Early this morning, the university reached agreements with three other collective-bargaining units that had been threatening to strike, those representing non-tenure-track faculty, graduate assistants, and civil-service employees.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
UK teachers strike over attacks on pensions.
Details at:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5616
Strikes will take place in schools, further education colleges and universities. This is action across the UK education sector on an unprecedented scale.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions
Tagged pensions, Strikes & Labor Disputes, teachers, UK
August 22, 2010 — The two major civil service unions on strike against the South African government have vowed to intensify pressure in coming days, in a struggle pitting more than a million members of the middle and lower ranks of society against a confident government leadership fresh from hosting the World Cup.
Along with many smaller public sector unions, educators from the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) and nurses from the National Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) continued picketing schools, clinics and hospitals, leading to widespread shutdowns starting on August 18. Skeleton teams of doctors and military personnel were compelled to send non-emergency cases home.
In several confrontations with police at town centres, clinics and schools late last week, workers were shot with rubber bullets and water cannon. On August 21, the courts enjoined workers to return to jobs considered “emergency services”. In dozens of hospitals and clinics, military health workers took over.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma threatened mass sackings and attacked labour movement activists who successfully disrupted health and education facilities: “Even during the campaigns against the apartheid government we did not prevent nurses from going to work”, the leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) stated. The South African Communist Party (SACP) issued a statement defending the strikers but requested the labour movement and ANC desist from “flinging irritable insults at each other, while the private sector and anti-worker elements sit back and laugh”.
Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1852
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged public sector, South Africa, Strikes
NACLA: Student Strike in Puerto Rico Continues With Increasing International Support
Monday, May 24 marked the sixth week of a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) after protests at the main Río Piedras campus began on April 21. Students are protesting $100 million budget cuts, increases in tuition, and changes to the university program. While the student strike was intended to be only a 48 hour stoppage, the university administration was unwilling to negotiate with students, leading to an expansion and prolongation of the strike. The UPR administration shut down the university, which serves 65,000 students, after the April 21 protest at the main campus resulted in a confrontation with the police.
The UPR strike is one of several recent strikes on the island that is the result of the Puerto Rican government’s passing of Law 7 more than a year ago. The law gave the government power to make emergency financial decisions in response to the $3.2 billion state deficit. This year Governor Luis Fortuño’s government reduced the UPR’s budget in spite of the 1966 Puerto Rican law that guaranteed that 9.6 percent of the island’s general funds would be reserved for the university.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Puerto Rico, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students, U of Puerto Rico
CBC: University of Montreal reaches deal with faculty
The University of Montreal has reached an agreement in principle with its striking faculty members.
About 2,400 members of the teaching staff at the francophone university have been on strike since Feb. 24 over job security, class size and salaries.
Union members will vote on the new collective agreement Sunday morning. The negotiation committee will recommend that they accept the deal.
In a news release, the university said students would head back to classes April 12. The semester will be extended to May 9, and as a result, the summer semester will start later.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/04/08/university-of-montreal-deal.html#ixzz0l0DUMbjm
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
World University News: EGYPT: Academics threaten pay strikes
A recent admission by Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education that the salaries of lecturers at public universities are “paltry” has not mollified them. Indeed, academics are angrier than before and have threatened more protests to pressure the government to substantially increase their salaries.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Egypt, Salary/Economic Benefits, Strikes & Labor Disputes
AFP: Students, teachers protest over US education cuts
LOS ANGELES — Students clashed with baton-wielding police as thousands took to the streets across California in mostly peaceful protests against cuts in education spending.
Television reports showed dozens of protesters at the University of California Berkeley scuffling with police as demonstrations against fee hikes of more than 30 percent turned viole
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Budget cuts, Budgets & Funding, March 4 Strike and Day of Action, Protests
Reuters: U.S. students protest fee hikes at universities
* Protests largely peaceful but some arrests in Oakland (Adds Oakland arrests, San Francisco rally)
SAN FRANCISCO, March 4 (Reuters) – Students and faculty at California’s public universities rallied across the state on Thursday to protest steep fee hikes they say have damaged a system of higher education long the envy of the nation.
More than 100 such events in more than 30 states were scheduled for a “Day of Action” in support of public education, prompted by tuition hikes and program cuts that reflect financial problems affecting nearly every U.S. state.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Budget cuts, Budgets & Funding, March 4 Strike and Day of Action, Protests
Now Public: Students Across California and the US Protest Budget Cuts During Day of Action to Defend Public Education
Students across California and other parts of the US took part in a national day of protest against higher tuition fees and budget cuts at post-secondary institutions.
Protest organizers state that they hope to raise awareness about how the recession is affecting universities, calling Thursday a Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Students caused disruptions at the University of California at Santa Cruz UC Berkeley, and other universities across California. Protests also took place at the University of Maryland.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Budget cuts, March 4 Strike and Day of Action, Protests
The Epoch Times: Students Protest on Various Fronts as Cuts Loom
New York City NEW YORK—Looming education-related cuts lead to student protests on four fronts in the city on Thursday, tying into a national day of student protest over similar cuts.
Protests in New York City targeted the planned elimination of free Student MetroCards, the closure of 19 public schools that were broken up into smaller charter schools, the education cuts looming from the city and state budgets, and the overall mayoral control of the city’s school system.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Budget cuts, Budgets & Funding, March 4 Strike and Day of Action, Protests
Democracy Now!: Students, Teachers Take Part in Nationwide Protests Against Education Cuts
Hundreds of thousands of students and teachers took part in protests Thursday as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Much of the day’s focus was on the university and state college campuses of California, where students face a 32 percent tuition hike. Thousands of California students staged a one-day strike and took part in rallies from San Diego to Sacramento to Humboldt County. Actions were held in at least thirty other states, including here in New York, where protesters rallied outside the offices of Governor David Paterson. It was the largest day of coordinated student protest in years.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Tagged Budget cuts, Budgets & Funding, March 4 Strike and Day of Action, Protests, U of California
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
AP: Ala. Statehouse rally held for higher ed funding
MONTGOMERY, ALA.
A throng of college students and administrators waved signs and shouted slogans as bands played fight songs Thursday during a rally to push for more state funds for higher education in Alabama.
Students also joined higher education officials in urging legislators to reach a fair solution to the crisis facing the state’s prepaid college tuition program, known as PACT, without putting caps on tuition for PACT participants.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
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