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it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers.
PAY YOUR WRITERS LIVEABLE WAGES. PAY YOUR HEALTH CARE WORKERS LIVEABLE. PAY TEACHERS LIVEABLE WAGES.
PAY YOUR WORKERS LIVEABLE WAGES
PAY PEOPLE SO THEY CAN LIVE
In a Facebook video posted Wednesday, the band performed an acoustic version of “Worker’s Song,” a pro-union song they covered on their 2003
The Newton Teachers Association (NTA) is facing increasing pressure to end its strike and reopen Newton Public Schools after nine days of closure. But now, one of the most iconic bands to ever come out of Massachusetts is letting everyone know that they support the union. On Wednesday, the NTA posted a video to its Facebook page of the Dropkick Murphys — a Celtic punk band from Quincy — issuing a message to the striking teachers. “We’re the Dropkick Murphys sending our love, solidarity and support out to all the teachers on the picket line. Thank you for all you do,” lead singer Ken Casey says in the video.
ALBERTA PUBLIC STUDENT STRIKE NOTICE
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is currently attempting to pass Bill 2 (the Back to School Act) after over 3 weeks of all public, francophone, and Catholic teachers within Alberta going on strike due to overcrowded classrooms, a severe lack of funding (especially for public education), minimal resources, and salaries that have fallen way behind the rate of inflation (only a 5.87% pay increase in the past DECADE, while inflation in the same time frame has gone up by roughly 30%), among other issues.
Several weeks before the strike started, negotiations between the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) and Smith have gone under way, with two offers being made by Smith but rejected by the ATA via teacher vote each time. Due to a lack of agreement up until October 6th, 2025, the entire province's education system has since gone on halt.
While multiple attempts at negotiating have been made the past few weeks, the offers made by Smith do not solve anything;
Hiring 3000 new teachers would mean an average of 1.5 new teachers in every school, but there's quite literally no physical room for more teachers, classes, or students in the average school building anymore -- even in the urban areas.
Her proposed wage increase of 12% over 4 years was also deemed unsatisfactory, given how it does not in any way keep up with inflation rates in any significant way at all.
Concerns over class sizes have been brushed aside; despite the fact that so many teachers have to tend to as many as 40-50 students per class (standard in Canada - -and what classrooms can physically and safely contain -- is 20-30 students. Even less in rural areas with smaller schools that service multiple areas), she's somehow come up with the claim that the average class size in Alberta is only 21 students, thus classroom size caps weren't even on the bargaining table at all. According to this CBC article, "The ACOL report recommended Alberta school divisions aim to have, on average, Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes have 17 students, Grade 4-6 classes have 23 students, junior high classes have 25 students and high school classes have 27 students. Alberta’s government cancelled class size reporting in 2019. Data from Edmonton Public Schools, which still tracks it, and anecdotes from teachers, students and parents suggest class sizes in many schools are much larger than those recommendations." On top of that, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, who reportedly has little to no experience with K9 education, claims that class size has no impact on academic performance.
One of the offers even contained free COVID-19 vaccine/booster shots for teachers. For context to anyone reading this outside of Canada, every other province and territory offers the COVID shots for free. Alberta was also like that at some point, until Smith decided to make them cost $100CAD ($71.44USD). How this was intended to solve any of the ATA's mentioned problems is...not quite clear at all.
If the Back to School Act is passed, the current strike will be deemed illegal and staff will be forced back into classrooms sometime by the end of this week. Consequences haven't yet been determined as of the time of writing this post (Oct 27, 10:13AM). What Smith is doing is highly unconstitutional and a major infringement on the right to protest (detailed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms). This behaviour isn't new either; the Alberta Sovereignty Act, passed November 29, 2023, was put in place to have some leeway from Canadian laws, giving Smith more control over Alberta. She does not care about what's constitutional. It's not even that secretive, she herself ignited the flames for a separatism movement in the province.
Here's where student action comes into play. If the Act is officially passed and put into effect, students must take the torch and continue this protest on the behalf of teachers. Alberta's public education system cannot continue to function in its current conditions. If the strikes end up working, the younger children will finally have a system that can accommodate them and their needs without stretching itself out thin. Speaking as a 12th grader with multiple diploma exams in January, while an extended strike would be very difficult to bounce back from, the student strike would continue the chances of giving the next graduating class and all the kids beyond them a proper education. How is it that we're the richest province in the nation but experience the poorest schools?
Even without the strike, Alberta students have been put at a huge disadvantage for years when it comes to post-secondary education opportunities; students from provinces like Ontario benefit from a more functional education system that gives them more academic prowess, opportunities, and overall less stress; to put it casually, compared to Albertan public students, private students and those from other provinces are practically spoon-fed opportunities that help them exceed in academics, setting up strong foundations for whatever they choose to do with their lives afterwards. Public students in Alberta deserve the same. The ATA has been raising awareness about these problems for years now, and we've gotten to the climax.
As of the current time of me writing this (Oct 27, 11:11AM), Bill 2 has been announced to be discussed this afternoon in Edmonton.
My fellow peers: if Bill 2 is passed teachers are forced back to work, do not go back to school. Not until the UCP bends to the will of the common good. We cannot let Smith have her way again. Talks of a student strike have already been taking place for the past several days, I'm simply doing my part in educating others and spreading the word.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says the Alberta government won’t spend beyond $2.6 billion over four years in new spending to resol
https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-its-time-for-alberta-to-put-a-cap-on-class-sizes
https://calgaryherald.com/news/back-to-school-first-says-premier
The Alberta government is expected to table legislation Monday that, if passed, could force teachers to return to their classrooms as early
✨EP 43 OUT NOW✨In the penultimate episode of Leftist Teen Drama Season 5, Maria is joined by fellow union comms girlie Diana Hussein to dive into the Saved By The Bell Teachers’ Strike episode. As the first of multiple Leftist Teen Drama episodes on this quintessential ‘90s teen show, we dive into this short-lived plotline in which Zack and Slater manipulate Principal Belding and union president Mr. Tuttle to ensure Bayside teachers go on strike so Zack and Slater can get out of school. Despite the shaky motives, the teachers do end the strike with a better contract than they started with, making this probably the weirdest strike episode we’ve discussed so far.
Hosted by Maria DiPasquale, produced by Jeff McHale, with art by Charles O’Leary, Episode 43 of Leftist Teen Drama is now streaming everywhere you get your podcasts.
There was a classic Simpsons episode where Springfield Elementary teachers went on strike, and the PTA responded by bringing in residents (including Marge Simpson) as replacement teachers. Would this count as union busting or crossing the picket line? If yes, I wonder why it was depicted as largely benevolent considering that Simpsons writers and plots tend to lean liberal.
Let's not mince words, it's 100% scabbing. It's not just crossing a picket line as a customer, it's crossing a picket line in order to work as non-union temporary labor, with the intent to crush the strike.
I don't agree that it's depicted as benevolent behavior - the whole gag of the middle portion of the episode is that the scabs are terrible fucking teachers. Frink is completely wasted in preschool and doesn't let the kids play with toys, Jasper is a physically abusive idiot who gets his beard stuck in a pencil sharpener, and Moe and the like are total pushovers when it comes to Bart's pranks. The only one who can manage a classroom at all is Marge, and even then she's incredibly embarrassing and unprofessional with Bart. (Notable difference compared to how she does in "Whacking Day.")
Also, it's not necessarily the case that Simpsons writers are always left-leaning. John Swartzwelder is notoriously incredibly conservative and his scripts tended to push his libertarian views pretty strongly.
Amid negotiations between various unions and the Quebec government, CEGEPs will be affected by another strike action.
Amid negotiations between various unions and the Quebec government, CEGEPs will be affected by another strike action. This time, workers represented by the Syndicat de professionnelles et professionnels du gouvernement du Québec (SPGQ) will strike on Nov. 23 and 24, unless an agreement is reached by then. Union members are following in the footsteps of the 65,000 primary and secondary school teachers with the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), who will be on unlimited general strike from Nov. 23.
Continue Reading.
Tagging @politicsofcanada
NEU members have votes to reject the crap pay deal on offer.
New Strike dates called for 27th April and 2nd May.
The turnout on this vote was higher than the original indicative ballot for strike action.
Gillian Keegan said her offer was final, but our engagement is growing, more people are coming over to the NEU all the time, our arguments are cutting through.
The NEU is in this for the long haul.
