{"id":6285,"date":"2015-09-30T19:47:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T19:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newscoverage.org\/?p=6285"},"modified":"2015-09-30T19:47:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T19:47:31","slug":"montreal-school-strike-looms-oct-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/30\/montreal-school-strike-looms-oct-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal: School strike looms Oct. 28"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Extracurricular activities spiked<\/h1>\n

By Robert Frank<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teachers have voted to give their union locals a strike mandate. Last week about 50 per cent of Montreal Teachers Association (MTA) and Pearson Teachers Union (PTU) members cast ballots approve a six-day strike mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Thursday, 77 per cent [of them] voted in favour, but we will go back to members after three [strike] days to get a reaffirmation,\u201d said MTA president Peter Sutherland.<\/p>\n

\u201cPearson teachers voted 80 per cent to approve the six-day strike mandate,\u201d said PTU president John Donnelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cPearson teachers\u2019 primary issue is the increased class size that the government wants to implement and cancellation of support for special needs students,\u201d Donnelly said in an interview.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s something that we as teachers cannot accept nor should parents and the public, either,\u201d agreed Sutherland.<\/p>\n

Both MTA and PTU are working in lockstep with the province\u2019s other teachers and public service unions.<\/p>\n

Both union locals are negotiating along with the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), which represents some 8,500 English teachers in Quebec as well as the federation representing nearly 60,000 French teachers, as part of a common front that includes the three other big union federations that represent other public sector employees.<\/p>\n

The common front strike vote will close down the entire education sector, including CEGEPs, QPAT president Richard Goldfinch told The Suburban.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAll ten locals have voted by majorities of 70-90 per cent for up to six-to-eight days of strike action,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThose are some of the strongest strike mandates that we\u2019ve seen in quite a long time. Teachers are really, really angry and are willing to let the government know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers want more support in the classroom, smaller classes and [continued] support for special needs students that the government wants to remove,\u201d Goldfinch explained. \u201cWe\u2019re perplexed by the government\u2019s latest demands. We don\u2019t understand why they\u2019ve gone back to where they started.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dialing for dollars<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The dispute is also about money. The starting salaries a Quebec teacher is about $42,000 and rises to about $78,000 within 17 years. The unions say that Quebec teachers are the lowest-paid in the country. However, direct comparisons are\u00a0difficult because salaries can vary widely by region in other provinces like Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The government] wants to add three hours to our weekly schedule and tell us what to do with all 35 hours,\u201d Goldfinch complained. \u201cTo add insult to injury, they have not offered us any real salary increase: Just three per cent over five years. We\u2019re negotiating together with the common front, which is asking for 13.5 per cent over three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to see fewer and fewer people signing up to become teachers, because they won\u2019t have a very good paying job,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Rotating walkouts pending<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Goldfinch expects the strike to commence sometime after the Oct. 19 federal election, with Oct. 28 as a possible date for the first walkoff, Donnelly told The Suburban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strike situation seems to be gelling in terms of dividing the province into four regions,\u201d Pearson Teachers Union president John Donnelly said in an interview \u201cIn the first go round, each region will stage a one-day strike with nurses, teachers and public servants [there] all going\u00a0out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAt that point we\u2019ll assess the lay of the\u00a0land and then another round that might be two days or perhaps go for a province-wide strike,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have to give parents seven days notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutherland was less committal about the strike action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have our dates for the first strike,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the decisions have been made final yet.\u201d After-school fun axed<\/p>\n

In the meantime, teachers have shut down the fun-filled educational activities that are what most people remember about school, long after they graduate. Students have faced a blanket boycott of extracurricular activities (ECAs) since the start of the school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers voted 91 per cent in favour of putting a ban on extracurricular activities,\u201d Donnelly reported. \u201cThat means that there won\u2019t be ECAs by the teachers unless they have already committed money to an event and can\u2019t get the money back. Then they would continue. Other than that, there are no activities. Teachers are already working to rule. Teachers do what they are paid a salary to do, namely be in the school 37 hours a week: 32 hours in the classroom and five other hours of pedagogical work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation is similar at EMSB.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome schools might choose to bring in parents as volunteers and there are a couple of schools that already have employees who are not teachers whom they hire to do some of these activities,\u201d Sutherland said. \u201cA few schools, but not many.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"150325<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pearson Teachers Union president John Donnelly (Photo \u00a9 Robert Frank)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extracurricular activities spiked By Robert Frank Teachers have voted to give their union locals a strike mandate. Last week about 50 per cent of Montreal Teachers Association (MTA) and Pearson Teachers Union (PTU) members cast ballots approve a six-day strike mandate. \u201cLast Thursday, 77 per cent [of them] voted in favour, but we will go<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMontreal: School strike looms Oct. 28 - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/30\/montreal-school-strike-looms-oct-28\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Montreal: School strike looms Oct. 28 - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Extracurricular activities spiked By Robert Frank Teachers have voted to give their union locals a strike mandate. 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