The Free Press, September 25, 2014

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Your Source for 44 Cold & Flu Medicine n 12

Thursd a y , Se p tem b er 2 5 , 2014

GHOSTRIDERS

Serving the South Country, Fernie, Sparwood, Elkford since 1898

FREE

All fore a good time at Brydon tournament

Riders return from road games- Page 17 FERNIE

WildSafeBC hosts first open house - Page 5 SPARWOOD

Lighting up the Titan Truck - Page 3

Golfers got into the spirit of the fun Emily Brydon Golf Tournament by doing a bit of dress up. For more photos and the full story turn to page 2.

Photo by S. Kucharski

ARTS

B.C. teachers cut a deal, school reopens By Sarah Kucharski Free Press Staff

Global Drum Ensemble - Page 12

SPORTS

Annual Dirt Diggler race - Page 18

A

s the official days of summer die out, school re-opened on Monday to kick off the fall season after B.C. teachers and the government finally cut a deal to end the strike. Details of the deal that ended a five week lockout for B.C. teachers reveals the BCTF and provincial government met somewhere in the middle on their demands. Last Thursday, 86 per cent of teachers said ‘yes’ to accepting the proposed deal. “There will be more classroom and specialist teachers in schools

to help our students. Our teachers teaching on call will get fair pay for a day’s work, and all our members will get a salary increase,” said the B.C. Teacher’s Federation president Jim Iker. When bargaining initially began last spring, both sides had drawn their lines firmly on the chalkboard. The BC Liberals would not stray from the basic contract formula that had been delivered and accepted by almost half of the province’s public sector workers. Equally as unyielding, B.C. teachers were clear they would not accept a deal that denied changes to class size and composition, as they

had previously won this right twice in Supreme Court. In the end, after subjecting parents and students to a five week, fullscale school lockout, the two sides came together at last to put an end to the strike. On the government’s part, $100 million was added to its learning improvement fund, totaling $400 million spread out over five years. That money will go towards hiring as many as 850 new teachers each year. To soften the blow of five weeks with no paycheques, teachers accepted a payout of $105 million in grievances, distributed by the union

as a signing bonus. Lastly, to protect the teacher’s court wins in the case of class size and composition, the government agreed to drop the controversial E80 clause, which teachers said have nullified those victories. Teachers ended up accepting the basic salary increases, subject to the other public sector workers. They will also receieve an $11.9 million boost in extended health and dental benefits and an increase in on-call rates. This new contract will expire in 2019, at which point we will see if any feelings of distrust amongst the two factions remain.

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