December 9, 2019
Announcement: Union Trends in Canada

To: 5 respondents, 4 former registered canvassers, 70 reporters and commentators; 23 trustee candidates and trustees; 31 of the many voters who are very concerned about our "one-size-fits-all" school boards; and 78 generally interested folks including members of the Social Mavrik Federation.

From: Bob Bray, President, Social Mavrik Federation

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CAMPBELL RIVER: Bob Bray presents some statistics about union trends in private and public sectors with a comparison to the public school sector.
Union Trends in Canada
While the unionization trend in Canada is for more unions in the public sector and fewer in the private sector, the unionization of public school teachers is complete and this has been so for several decades.

The most recent information provided by Stats Canada about Unionization Rates For Employed Individuals Aged 17 to 24 is summarized below.


Private Sector

Public Sector
1999 through 2014

18.4% down to 15.2%

70.4% up to 71.3%
Change

(3.1%)

0.9%
The comparable rates in the teaching profession from general knowledge are:
Public Neighborhood
School Teachers
100% same as 100%
0.0%
A timely quote from Ontario
Matthew Lau, writing in the Financial Post on December 3, has a good many things to say about unions in the education sector and a quote from his article is shown below.

The article is headlined as: If the goal is to have teachers paid fairly, the last thing we want is powerful unions.

And the sub-headline is: Let the free market determine class sizes and teacher wages.

Matthew writes, "Approximately 94 per cent of Ontario students go to government-run schools. As long as we have a government-monopoly school system with almost no competition and without real market prices, the government is spending money and delivering education blindly."

Note: In British Columbia about 87 per cent of students go to government run schools..
Ontario Schools - Education Instability 2019

Public Neighborhood Elementary Schools
  • phase 1 job action began on Tuesday, November 26
  • not completing Term 1 report cards
  • not participating in board or ministry courses outside of school hours
  • phase 2 job action to begin on Tuesday, December 10
  • not planning any new field trips
  • not collecting money for school activities, except charitable causes
  • issues are special needs students and one early childhood educator in every kindergarten classroom
  • Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario ETFO
  • 83,000 teachers

Public Neighborhood High Schools
  • work to rule began on Tuesday, December 3
  • Strike Day 1 - Wednesday, December 4
  • planned one day strike against 9 school boards on Wednesday, December 11
  • that's 9 out of 38 public secular boards
  • issues are compensation, class size and two required e-learning courses
  • Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation OSSTF
  • 60,000 teachers and education workers
You can Support or Oppose Charter Schools
The questionnaire is now two clicks away.

The first click is to a description of the survey and an image of the questionnaire.
This first link is:

The second click is on the questionnaire image which appears on your screen.

The questionnaire includes four demographic questions, but not the usual demographic questions about level of education and amount of family income. Rather these demographic questions are about the respondent's age plus number of children and grandchildren.

The school choice issue is a parents rights issue so that the family size of respondents is a useful piece of information.

Survey data will be reported in confidential detail on a web page within the Social Mavrik website. Access to this Survey Report page is now password protected.

Summary data without any personal information can be seen here.
Forwarding
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Contact:
Bob Bray, President, Social Mavrik Federation
Phone: 250-900-2422
Mail: 422-1434 Ironwood Street, Campbell River, British Columbia V9W 5T5
Email: bob.bray@socialmavrikbc.ca
Website: socialmavrikbc.ca
The Social Mavrik Federation is a registered society in British Columbia dedicated to cultural politics through endorsing MP / MLA / Trustee candidates and supporting initiative petitions, as directed by its members.
Facebook:
I have posted the image below on my Facebook page. I invite you to visit it at facebook.com/bob.bray.334 and, if you do, you are welcome to give it a like, and/or a share and/or a comment.
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Backgrounder:
The December 2nd Announcement that described the revised questionnaire and reported on job action in Ontario schools and the unwelcome reappearance in 2019 of systemic education instability - can be seen here.
The November 25th Announcement that launched the email survey, provided a link to the Elections BC summary of 12 initiative petitions since 1995 and reported the end of mediation in the BCTF talks with BCSEA - can be seen here.
The November 18th Announcement that described the 5-month process for the charter school legislative petition and the results of this first taste of direct democracy can be seen here.
The November 11th Announcement that gave the last call for canvassers for this petition and asked the question - Is the Saanich school strike worth it? - can be seen here.
The November 4th Announcement that described how to start a school and quoted that portion of the School Act which recognizes parental choice in education can be seen here.
The October 28th Announcement that unveiled the measure of unhappy parents from the 2018 trustee election as an "Unhappy Rate" of 22% can be seen here.
The October 21st Announcement that identified a gap in independent school choice can be seen here.
The October 14th Announcement that compared neighborhood and charter schools on the basis of leadership, answered the question "is a charter school the same as a private school?", plus described the Go Public Strategy, can be seen here.
The October 7th Announcement that provided an education comparison of neighborhood and charter schools, plus described the School Act and the Independent School Act, can be seen here.
The September 30th Announcement that introduced the Canvasser Action Binder, described 25-year history of Charter Schools in Alberta and listed the 13 Alberta Charter Schools can be seen here.