BCPSEA: What a Mug's Game they play!

BCTF’s opening proposal for salary is Cost of living for the 1^st year, cost of living plus a small market adjustment of 3% in the second and third years.  BCPSEA claims that this opening proposal of 15% over 3 years amounts to 2 billion dollars.

Let’s take a closer look.

The full operating grant funding for 2011/12 amounts to 4.72 billion dollars. Teacher salaries account for 2.17 billion.  That’s about 46% of the total operating grant for the province.

Yet the government and BCPSEA claim that an opening proposal of 15% over three years will equal 2 billion? Even an elementary school studying basic percentages couldn’t fathom that.  That preposterous claim would mean that the teachers are asking that their salaries be raised by nearly 100% during the course of three years.  Did they hear wrong?  Were the teachers asking for 100% increase over 3 years? No, they were making an opening proposal of 3% (cost of living), 3% cost of living + 3% market adjustment, then 3% cost of living + 3% market adjustment.  All of which is negotiable, by the way.

15% of 2.17 billion is actually $325,510,038. Even with some compounding over the 3 years, the teachers are not asking for 100% increase over 3 years as BCPSEA suggests and as Mr. Abbott and various newspapers keep repeating.

Hope that puts an end to the Mug’s game that BCPSEA is playing with regard to salary demands.

Corrections to Government Made-up "Facts."

Thank you to the BC Ministry of Education for providing me with such a convenient opportunity to present the facts to my readers.  The following table (the parts in black) was posted on the Ministry websites.  Most of what they have presented as fact is simply made up.  The REAL facts are in red.

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation Claim	FACT
700 fewer Special Needs teachers	Government propagated MYTH: 2,100 additional special needs teaching assistants in B.C. classrooms. FACT: Although assistants are important, in the time between 2001 and 2007 over 600 special ed. TEACHERS were lost. At the same time the numbers of special needs students increased by over 1400 students. Since 2006 , 174 more special needs teachers have been lost and over 1,000 more special needs assistants have been added. http://bctf.ca/announcements.aspx?id=25308
Ninth-best paid in Canada	Gov propagated MYTH: B.C. teachers’ salary plus benefits is fourth-best among provinces. FACT: When comparing categories of equal training and experience BC teachers range from 6th to 9th depending on category.  The facts are clearly shown in the BCTF documents found at http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/BargainingContracts/U102-SalaryDocument.pdf
Seniority eroded under Bill 22 - Education Improvement Act	Gov propagated MYTH: Seniority remains key factor but qualifications also considered. Math teachers teaching Math; Science teachers teaching Science. FACT: This is a made-up problem.  All teacher collective agreements contain within their seniority language a provision that qualifications trump seniority. The government proposal is that seniority comes after principal’s choice which opens the door for all kinds of discrimination which would be difficult to prove.  i.e. nepotism, cronyism, applicant too active in the union, too fat, too feminine, too masculine, of child bearing age.  Who knows? Seniority is NOT a key factor in the BCPSEA proposal and for their information qualifications are already considered in collective agreements.
Contract demands are reasonable	Gov propagated MYTH: A 15 per cent wage increase at a cost of $2 billion is completely unreasonable, given the current economic reality. FACT: It is reasonable to ask for a cost of living increase.  And since BC teachers are so far behind colleagues across the country, it is reasonable to propose a small catch-up, which by the way is only a tiny fraction of the actual gap.  This is also our opening position. Unfortunately BCPSEA has not offered even one counter to our opening position. Furthermore, BCPSEA continues to play a mug’s game with their costing. The BCTF costing of all of our proposals is $535 million dollars.  It’s a little odd 15% increase to one account (which comprises between 40 – 50% of the total budget) within a total budget of 4 – 5 billion $ would increase the total budget by nearly 50%.  Hmmm...Some monkey business going on with those calculations.
Wage increases are modest	Gov propagated MYTH: Teachers’ union demands would cost $2 billion, which would raise taxes on all B.C. families. FACT: The BC Liberals have made some serious mistakes in handling taxpayer money.  They are now choosing to make the workers of BC pay for their mistakes.  They have other options which they refuse to take.  They could rescind some of the tax breaks they have given to the wealthiest corporations.  Currently BC has the lowest corporate tax rates in the G8.  I am not talking about incorporated small businesses here.  I am talking about extremely wealthy companies, many of whom over charge and underpay. Talk about favouring the 1% over the 99%.
Eliminated class sizes	Gov propagated MYTH: Class-size caps on all grades with exceptions made by principals and superintendents. FACT: And how are principals and superintendents going to make class sizes reasonable without adequate funding?  The consultation with the teacher, the person who best knows what will work in any given classroom, is also no longer required.
Reject net-zero wage mandate	130 net-zero contracts signed. 25,000 CUPE employees signed net zero contracts. FACT: That is a decision for other unions to make.  Labour unions are in support of the BCTF struggle for a fair and reasonable deal. They recognize that this is an assault on all of them, not just teachers.
Teachers have not been fairly compensated	Teachers received a 16 per cent wage increase; $3,700 signing bonus for their last contract. FACT: And yet teachers have gone from 3rd in Canada to as low as 9th.  But what is even more egregious is the insistence on stripping the collective agreement of long held rights.  Furthermore the government has ignored the Supreme Court ruling by Judge Griffin regarding class size and composition, teachers’ working conditions and students’ learning conditions. Bill 22 is an all out assault on unions and the government is starting with teachers. It is also an assault on students and the education system in general.
12,000 overcrowded classes	Gov propagated MYTH: Of 65,000 classes, fewer than 1,500 have more than 31 students. Fewer than 600 have more than 33 -- most of these are band, choir and theatre. FACT: Overcrowding is more than that. What about classes that pose a health and safety problem because children are being crammed into labs that are only made for 24 students? What about classes of 28 with 8 special needs students? Are those not overcrowded? Here is the BCTF brief on Education Funding to the Select Standing committee on Finance and Government Services which clearly indicates the true extent of overcrowding in our schools: http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/Briefs/2011EdFundingBrief.pdf