Canada Ping!
Posted on 09/16/2012 5:53:07 AM PDT by Salman
Three powerful unions representing Ontario teachers and education workers declared war Tuesday against the governing Liberals after a controversial anti-strike bill passed in the legislature.
The two biggest unions representing elementary and secondary school teachers are urging their members to withdraw from any voluntary activities as a show of protest of what they're calling "draconian" legislation.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation is telling its members not to do any voluntary activities — such as coaching sports teams — on Wednesday.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is urging its members not to participate in "any school-based or system level meetings of any kind" on Mondays.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Chicago and every other Union “owned” teachers assoc is stuck on stupid.
Ping
One nice thing about Canada is that with the clear delineation between provincial and federal areas of responsibility and the tendency to have government monopolies in some areas (rather than government intervention everywhere) things tend to be somewhat simpler, which makes it so that even the less conservative parties sometimes make good moves.
Something like 85% of the provincial budget goes for education, which is a virtual provinial monopoly on all levels in Ontario, healthcare, again a monopoly, and debt service. Any liberal (primarily in the small l sense, but alsoe in the large L sense) with half a braind has to be able to see that unless they are willing to entirely gut either education or healthcare each has to tighten the belt—if one cuts debt service, it is game over.
Correction: 71.5% of the budget for education (including post-secondary), healthcare, and debt maintenance. Justice and child programs take up slightly more than half of the rest, and the rest is misc.
Debt is only 8.4% at the moment but if interest rates go up, there is no way to avoid tightening up in health and education.
Nearly 20% of revenue is designated federal money—which is good for healthcare and child programs (which benefit from about three-quarters of the ear marks), but also limits options somewhat further.
Canada Ping!
Provincial parties are normally separate agencies from the federal parties of the same names, but, still, Ontario’s Liberal Party has screwed up that province quite well. That they have decided to do battle with a major union is a very good sign that they may be waking up to the damage their ideology has done.
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