Category Archives: Strikes

Teachers / BCTF Solidarity Run

Posted on March 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on Teachers / BCTF Solidarity Run

Charles Menzies is organizing a KillBill22 Solidarity Run Monday morning for 22 minutes.  Pick a public school of your choice, show up and run around it for 22 minutes!  This is linking a new passion with an old one, running and solidarity actions 🙂  A consistently reliable labour advocate and leader, Charles will be at U Hill Secondary Monday morning @ 8:22 if you want to join him.  ICES will be joining!

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Posted in Athletics, K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes

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BC Secondary Students Walk Out in Protest

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on BC Secondary Students Walk Out in Protest

It takes a ton of courage for a student to walk out of school and today these young citizens demonstrated en masse across the province.  Every teacher should stand proud as their students stand side by side with one voice.  Every parent of these kids should feel the payoff.  And the students themselves have to know they make the difference for all of us.  This is education (see slide show below).

At the Vancouver Art Gallery, at least 1,500 students convened around 2:00 and stood, spoke, and shouted in solidarity with teachers and the BCTF.  Students at Eric Hamber Secondary seem to have been the first group, exiting the school around 11:00 this morning.  Despite the typically uncooperative weather (5C and rainy), the students were still protesting through the late afternoon.

It has been quite some time since BC saw a student movement but what struck me most was how many showed up and how well organized the demonstration was.  These kids know their politics and how to win hearts.  Signs everywhere with the critique of the BC government’s decision-making loud and clear, a young woman kicked things off: “BC” she shouted and 1,500 hollered back “students”… “BC” she shouted and 1,500 screamed “teachers.”  That’s a solid show of force.

As post-secondary students in BC deal with compounding challenges that seem relentless, let’s hope the high school students spark this from grass roots to an all out BC student movement.  Quebec post-secondary students are putting everything on the line right now.  Time to take inspiration from the younger crowd to stand up and be heard BC post-secondary students!

BC Students Walk Out March 2012 Slide Show (photos by S. Petrina)

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Posted in BC Education, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students

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BC Students Walking Out on Government

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on BC Students Walking Out on Government

Thousands of BC students are set to walk out this afternoon in support of public education and their teachers, and in protest of the government’s draconian legislation Bill 22.  They’re making “their voices heard in the prolonged teachers’ dispute with the province.”

See updates at CBC and Facebook

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Posted in BC Education, K-12 issues, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students

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Petition in Support of Teachers / BCTF

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on Petition in Support of Teachers / BCTF

Post-secondary Support of BC Teachers / BCTF Petition.

Faculty members, librarians, administrators, students, and staff in post-secondary institutions across British Columbia in support of teachers and the BCTF.  All bargaining units deserve a fair process of reaching a collective agreement.

This is for post-secondary to demonstrate support and appeal to the BC Premier and Minister.

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Posted in BC Education, K-12 issues, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

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Kill Bill 22 in BC Legislature Petition

Posted on March 1, 2012 by | 4 comments

Sign the Kill Bill 22 Petition

The B.C. Govt is removing teachers’ right to fair contract negotiations and is continuing to cut funding for public education and in particular, special education support.

We need your help to protect the children and teachers of British Columbia.  Please sign the Petition.

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Posted in BC Education, K-12 issues, Protests, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

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BC Teachers Vote Yes to Strike

Posted on March 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on BC Teachers Vote Yes to Strike

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

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Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

Posted on April 6, 2011 by | Comments Off on Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

Co-Dev: Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

After almost 3 weeks of street protests and strikes during which security forces killed two protesters and beat and imprisoned hundreds more, Honduran teachers announced a “strategic retreat” on Monday April 4th.

The teachers, members of the 6 teachers colleges that make up the Federation of Honduran Teachers Organizations (FOMH), have been protesting the seizure of their pension fund and social security institute by the de facto regime of Porfirio Lobo, the destruction of the Teachers´Statute (the law that governs wages and working conditions for education workers), and the off-loading of responsibility for public education to municipal authorities.

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Strike saved Acadia $1 million in payroll costs, union says

Posted on November 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Strike saved Acadia $1 million in payroll costs, union says

The Chronicle Herald: Strike saved Acadia $1 million in payroll costs, union says

Acadia University faculty lost over $1 million in salary during their three-week strike, and the school may put the money toward a credit for students in the second semester.

The strike cost the 314 professors, instructors and librarians $57,000 a day, or almost $1.2 million, spokesman Andrew Biro of the Acadia University Faculty Association said Friday.

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Israel: Faculty strike enters fourth week amid mutual recriminations

Posted on November 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Israel: Faculty strike enters fourth week amid mutual recriminations

Haaretz: Faculty strike enters fourth week amid mutual recriminations

Scientific researchers at universities have been bitter for years over the decline in the quality of infrastructure in their field. Last Thursday, they set aside their petri dishes, left their lab mice unaccompanied and set off to protest. They are demanding increased public funding for science, and protesting “the government’s contempt for Israeli research.”

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Posted in International, Strikes

Palestinian teachers hold strike

Posted on November 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Palestinian teachers hold strike

International Middle East Media Center: Palestinian teachers hold strike

Palestinian public school teachers on Monday held a one-day strike, warning that a further strike would follow in two weeks if the government failed to meet their demands.

The teachers are demanding that owed expenses be released, that salaries be matched with an increase in the cost of living in the Palestinian territories, and that the government explains why it revoked a previous decision by the unity government to grant teachers in the Jerusalem area a 1000 NIS per. month pay-rise, replacing it with a 500 NIS increase.

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Posted in International, Strikes

Baharain: Teachers threaten hunger strike

Posted on November 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Baharain: Teachers threaten hunger strike

Gulf Daily News: Teachers threaten hunger strike

THOUSANDS of teachers, who went on a demonstration yesterday for the third time in six months over a 30 per cent pay rise, are pledging to go on a hunger strike soon.

The demonstration, held in front of Al Fateh Mosque, followed two earlier protests in September and June.

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Posted in International, Protests, Strikes

Israel: School strike drags on despite progress

Posted on November 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Israel: School strike drags on despite progress

Jerusalem Post: School strike drags on despite progress

The secondary school teachers’ strike will continue Sunday after the Secondary School Teachers Union’s administration decided the previous night not to temporarily suspend the shutdown, despite what Treasury officials said were significant concessions they made on Friday.

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Posted in International, Strikes

Several Hundred Students Strike at UMass-Amherst to Protest Fees and Voice Concerns

Posted on November 16, 2007 by | Comments Off on Several Hundred Students Strike at UMass-Amherst to Protest Fees and Voice Concerns

The Chronicle: Several Hundred Students Strike at UMass-Amherst to Protest Fees and Voice Concerns

Students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst began a two-day strike on Thursday to protest what they see as administrators’ indifference to their concerns.

Undergraduates and graduate students planned the strike together. They stated four demands: a drop in student fees, more attention to diversity, the withdrawal of police officers from dormitories, and more student say in the use of campus space.

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Posted in Strikes, Students

Quebec: Dawson students stage strike

Posted on November 16, 2007 by | Comments Off on Quebec: Dawson students stage strike

The Gazette (Montreal): Dawson students stage strike

By the books, it was an ordinary day at Dawson College – if it weren’t for the clutch of picketers on the doorstep shouting “Free Education Now,” security guards keeping watch for interlopers, or the faculty members who cancelled classes or simply refused to cross the line.

Students at Dawson College kicked off an impromptu three-day strike yesterday, joining more than 40,000 university and CEGEP students from across the province who are boycotting classes to protest Quebec’s decision to boost tuition fees by $500 over the next five years.

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Posted in Protests, Strikes, Students

Israel: Higher education reform group to recommend 70% tuition hike

Posted on July 11, 2007 by | Comments Off on Israel: Higher education reform group to recommend 70% tuition hike

Haaretz: Higher education reform group to recommend 70% tuition hike

The Shochat Committee’s report on higher education reforms is to recommend that tuition be raised by about 70 percent, to NIS 14,800, and that the higher education budget increase by NIS 2.5 billion over five years, according to senior committee members.

The report is due to be submitted Monday to the cabinet, which must approve the recommendations before they can be implemented.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Education Minister Yuli Tamir said in May, in the wake of a 41-day student strike protesting the recommendations, that they would discuss the committee’s findings with student associations before the cabinet votes on them.

Senior university officials said over the past few days they were happy with the recommendation to increase the higher education budget, but college and university students have warned that they will not stand for a tuition hike.

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Posted in Strikes, Students

Anti-Sarkozy protests in Paris, students strike

Posted on May 11, 2007 by | Comments Off on Anti-Sarkozy protests in Paris, students strike

Reuters: Anti-Sarkozy protests in Paris, students strike

French police arrested more than 100 demonstrators and hundreds of students went on strike at a Paris university as left-wing protests against president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy continued for a fourth night on Wednesday.

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Posted in International, Strikes, Students

Israel: University heads postpone ultimatum to end student strike

Posted on May 5, 2007 by | Comments Off on Israel: University heads postpone ultimatum to end student strike

studentprotest.bmpHaaretz.com: University heads postpone ultimatum to end student strike

The Committee of University Heads (CUH) announced Friday that classes in universities state-wide would resume on Monday, with or without the striking students, and not on Sunday, as they had threatened earlier.

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Posted in International, Strikes, Students

New York: Trying to raise the stakes at NYU

Posted on April 28, 2006 by | Comments Off on New York: Trying to raise the stakes at NYU

Inside Higher Ed: Trying to raise the stakes at NYU

Graduate students at New York University — on strike for months in hopes of saving their union — got support Thursday from the outgoing and incoming presidents of the American Association of University Professors, who were arrested for disorderly conduct for blocking a street in front of NYU.

Cary Nelson, the incoming president and a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in an interview before his arrest (and that of Jane Buck, the departing president) that he saw Thursday’s actions as a “ramping up of resistance” to NYU. More than 50 others were also arrested, most of them NYU graduate students, plus a few graduate students from other institutions.

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Virginia: Wage strategy paid off elsewhere

Posted on April 24, 2006 by | Comments Off on Virginia: Wage strategy paid off elsewhere

Daily Progress: Wage strategy paid off elsewhere

Organizers of the Living Wage Campaign at the University of Virginia are modeling their effort after successful student-led campaigns at other universities, including a nine-day hunger strike at Georgetown last spring.

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Strike news

Posted on April 8, 2006 by | Comments Off on Strike news

San Francisco: Board approves hiring replacements
San Francisco Chronicle, USA – Apr 6, 2006
Have a bachelor’s degree, a negative TB test, fingerprint clearance and the desire to make $300 a day? The San Francisco Unified School District wants you. …

Ontario: Occasional teachers begin work to rule
Ottawa Citizen – Ontario, Canada
… 30 and could strike later this month. … The Ottawa board and others have been “pink-listed” by the union, meaning occasional teachers cannot accept work …

Teachers May Walk Out Wednesday
KOBI 5 – Medford,OR,USA
A strike deadline looms next week after the last mediation session failed to … session between the Rogue River School District and the teachers union took place …

New KZN term may start with a strike
Independent Online – Cape Town,South Africa
… Eliam Biyela, of the National Teachers’ Union, said they would also encourage their members to strike in solidarity with other unions. …

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Posted in Strikes