October 6 - So it Begins - The Alberta Teacher Strike

[Looch City]

Smh now the libruls are weaponizing the kids! Think about the CHILDREN!

[Puppet Guy]

My kids just called me and said they've walked out and on the way to City Hall. Go give 'em hell, kid!

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Barnes

My son missed the bus this morning and I wasnt about to miss a meeting to drive him to a walkout. Lesson for today is this was important, go the #### to bed, you're autumn vacay is over and you're cleaning your bathroom and the basement.

Or you could, y’know, consider sending him to the rally

Walking out of class for kids is the fun part … but then what do they do once they walk out?

[Hot_Flatus]

I just walked over to take it in and it is quite a sight! Well done students.

Highly organized and just an overwhelming amount of honking + participation from the students and the crowd.

Terrific signs and some chants included: "Right to strike", "We want change", "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, the UCP has got to go"

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Or you could, y’know, consider sending him to the rally

Walking out of class for kids is the fun part … but then what do they do once they walk out?

They go down to City Hall and protest:

https://bsky.app/profile/yyc-david.b.../3m4gkx2hx3c2v

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by CFO

What I'm saying is the compromise is not hanging your head on firm caps but instead asking for more teachers to reduce class sizes. But to be firm on - class sizes has to be X is where both sides fell apart.

Originally Posted by CFO

It's like any professional. Any good professional eventually sours if they aren't happy.

Some teachers are upset (rightly so) while others will go back and do their job.

I'm ok as a parent if teachers limit or do less/no extra curricular activities. At my kids elementary most events are put on my the parent society with zero teacher help.

Originally Posted by CFO

Anyone in any professional - if you are not happy I suggest you change jobs or careers. It's the best thing on mental health.

Originally Posted by CFO

There's one in Aspen behind the Safeway area they surveyed this summer junior high.

Originally Posted by CFO

Language is hard in NE.

Irony isn't dead

[The Big Chill]

Good on these kids, awesome to see them stand up like this. My wife said the kids at her high school picked one to be a representative and met with a representative from other high schools a day or two ago to plan this whole thing.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Worst case scenario you end up failing to deliver on the threat for whatever reason. But today was not the time for a damp squib on the 'unprecedented action' they promised earlier.

Yeah, that bit was so disheartening... even if you don't want to rage about a general strike you at least put it on the table as "in motion" and then talk about how your putting all your organizational muscle into recalls for everyone who voted in favor, legal challanges on ever single line of the legislation including legal challenges on grounds to the that aren't subject to the NWC... basically go through a litany of things that you you will start doing right ####ing now not some vague talk about something in the weeks and months to come.

This province sucks ass.

[5abi]

Great job kids, it’s important to care about improving society

[Locke]

They're being educated on the mean streets from the School of Hard Knocks!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Looch City

Smh now the libruls are weaponizing the kids! Think about the CHILDREN!

Kind of like in Batman 2 when they strapped rockets on to Penguins? Now thats how you weaponize!!

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Checkmate mother####er!

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpo...&postcount=945

Checkmate? It happened just as I said it did. I generally referred to keyboard warriors in a preceding post but you are the one who actually called yourself one. I didn’t call you one directly until you referred to yourself as one because I assumed you identified as one.

All in good fun of course. But to go back to the bolded point you made a couple days ago, what specifically do you want the general population to do to support you?

I already gave you an example of something very practical and impactful that you can do and also gave some reasoning for why it will be helpful. I’ll go into a little bit more detail below.

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

This is why it is so crucial to have the general public supporting Unions. When the government knows voters won’t forgive them for allowing a strike like that to occur and putting tens of thousands of workers at risk of losing their jobs for doing the right thing the government is going to be inclined to avoid doing so or to fix it quickly if they end up in that position. When private businesses know that customers won’t support them if they fire employees for partaking in this type of collective action they are less likely to do so and more likely to put pressure on the government to fix the problem so that their business isn’t affected. Win/win.

When Unions know that voters and customers have their backs they have more leverage to take on these fights with because the lower the risk of job loss the higher the likelihood is that members would be willing to roll the dice.

So if you really want this to happen you’d be best served by starting a public petition stating that the signees will support unions in their fight by committing to not buy products from any businesses that fire employees for supporting this fight and to vote out the UCP if they don’t fix both this problem and the labour code they gutted.

What has for me been incredibly frustrating while reading these posts is the lack of understanding of the longterm financial burden to unions that is being asked for and then hearing them be blamed for not doing enough by people whose historical lack of support for Unions is a big part of the reason why Unions don’t have more resources at their disposal to do what those folks want Unions to do for them now.

By lack of support I don’t mean having to be a Union member. It’s voting for and supporting parties that intentionally make it harder for Unions to do what they are supposed to be able to do and generally not being supportive of workers when they are in labour disputes where it is clear they aren’t being treated fairly by their employers.

It’s great that people finally seem to be starting to understand some of the benefits they can provide to the general public but you have to understand that after decades of few being supportive, members wrongfully being called lazy/entitled, or unions wrongfully being accused of only helping bad employees, there’s going to be some hesitation from unions to believe the public won’t leave them hanging high and dry to rebuild after this fight. Which is frankly probably something the UCP is hoping for.

That’s why it would be helpful to see the public actually take steps to show unions they will support them longterm by demonstrating in some way an actual commitment to refusing to support any unreasonably anti-union businesses and governments. Better legislation will give unions the ability to grow and waste less money on frivolous court challenges while doing so. Businesses fearing public backlash for anti-union tactics will inevitably lead to less money being spent by unions dealing with that nonsense. Both help workers get the help of a Union if they want that, but the added stability also puts unions in a better position to support and represent their members with less resources being spent, which gives them more resources to potentially put into what you’re asking them to do now.

I say this in general terms but talk is cheap. Put yourselves in the shoes of unions for a moment. Would you trust the voting public of Alberta to not vote in another anti-union government without them doing anything of substance to convince you first?

We're trying to tell you that we've got your back. The students are telling you that they've got your back. Of course there is huge risk here and we don't know how it will go. Do I really need to give you the speech from Braveheart?

If you and the majority of the public can do enough to convince Unions across the province that you’ve got their backs I’ll drive you up to the legislature building in Edmonton to give your speech because I’d love to hear it. I’ll even bring you a megaphone.

[Parallex]

I hope my kid enjoys the 'unexcused absence' she earned... it's the only one she'll ever get without consequences (or at least I hope it is).

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

They go down to City Hall and protest:

https://bsky.app/profile/yyc-david.b.../3m4gkx2hx3c2v

Oh man...the Education system has really dropped the ball.

These children presumably have been taught that Calgary City Hall has absolutely nothing to do with the Teacher's Strike right?

What do they want Farkas to do?

The Children are always wrong.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

What has for me been incredibly frustrating while reading these posts is the lack of understanding of the longterm financial burden to unions that is being asked for and then hearing them be blamed for not doing enough by people whose historical lack of support for Unions is a big part of the reason why Unions don’t have more resources at their disposal to do what those folks want Unions to do for them now.

This is the part of your position that I can't understand. I get that there is a burden when you undertake this kind of action, but the other side of the coin is literally an existential threat to labour. If you can't collectively bargain, and public sector workers are going to be forced back to work with draconian legislation, that has to be far more concerning than the burden of a strike.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

This is the part of your position that I can't understand. I get that there is a burden when you undertake this kind of action, but the other side of the coin is literally an existential threat to labour. If you can't collectively bargain, and public sector workers are going to be forced back to work with draconian legislation, that has to be far more concerning than the burden of a strike.

Time for Unions to get back to their roots? Get the Mafia out there to do some 'convincing?'

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I hope my kid enjoys the 'unexcused absence' she earned... it's the only one she'll ever get without consequences (or at least I hope it is).

Dang, that's harsh. I let my kids skip school once in a while. Sometimes a really neat social opportunity or interesting extracurricular can come up and if their grades are fine they can get a lot more out of missing a day versus just robotically going in. Hell, I've taken my kids out of school for epic powder days...those usually come around once or twice a year. Both graduated and are in university now, so they're doing fine.

Just noting that being militant about attendance isn't always the best. It's also okay to let them know they aren't owned by an institution.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I hope my kid enjoys the 'unexcused absence' she earned... it's the only one she'll ever get without consequences (or at least I hope it is).

What are the consequences of "unexcused absence"?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Dang, that's harsh. I let my kids skip school once in a while. Sometimes a really neat social opportunity or interesting extracurricular can come up and if their grades are fine they can get a lot more out of missing a day versus just robotically going in. Hell, I've taken my kids out of school for epic powder days...those usually come around once or twice a year. Both graduated and are in university now, so they're doing fine.

Just noting that being militant about attendance isn't always the best. It's also okay to let them know they aren't owned by an institution.

#### I've pulled my kids out of school to go skiing for no other reason other than wanting to ski with them.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

#### I've pulled my kids out of school to go skiing for no other reason other than wanting to ski with them.

Protective services have been notified.

Everyone knows that nothing, nothing is more important than School!!